The Collinsport Chronicles XII: Captive Angelique
by Maryland Rose
Summary: Can Angelique convince her captor, Roxanne Drew, to forego revenge and make common cause against the Leviathan?
1. Chapter 1

Angelique is held captive by Roxanne Drew after escaping Tom Jennings. Vicky Winters has come back but with a sinister agenda. Tom Jennings has been captured after wreaking havoc while possessing his twin's body, but not before a brutal assault on Phillip Todd. A reporter has, after being kidnapped agreed with Barnbas to kill the story she was chasing in exchange of new stories, the idea being that if Barnbas is a source, she will be duty bound to protect him..

* * *

CAPTIVE ANGELIQUE

Chapter 1

"You should rest." Delia said sternly to Oriana "you are not fully recovered yet."

"Just let me finish this."

"If you keep at it, you may not be discharged tomorrow. What is it that you are writing, anyway?"

"The article I came here for. Well, not really. But it is a good one, and Barnabas will like it. No, don't worry, I don't say anything there that I shouldn't"

"Can I read it?"

Oriana bit her lip. She wanted Barnabas to be the first one to read it. Still, if she didn't let Delia look at it, there would be rumors as to what actually she had written about, and more problems.

"All right, you can tell me what you think of it."

* * *

"Oriana will come back tomorrow." Phillip rubbed the table top with the dust rag. "I have come to see to it that her room is ready for her."

"I don't think that you need to do much. It is still the same way it was when... when she left."

Phillip continued dusting nervously, unable to remain still.

Barnabas nodded knowingly. It wasn't dust that bothered Phillip now.

"Come here, Phillip." he said, "sit down."

Phillip looked up in alarm "What is it? Something wrong?"

"Just sit down."

Phillip did so, looking warily around, ready to jump at any moment.

"You can't get over it, yet." Barnabas took his hand. "what Tom did to you."

Phillip nodded, gritting his teeth.

"Do you blame me for it?"

"You? For what?"

"It was me that Tom was looking for. You were just caught in the middle. If you hadn't been inside this house..."

"Where else could I have been?" Phillip managed a brave smile, not too well. "It isn't you that I am blaming."

"Who, then?"

"Me."

"But why? It wasn't your fault."

"I should have carried the saw inside when I heard Amy scream. I could have figured a way to jump him..."

"And get Amy killed?"

"He told me to gag her, and I did." Phillip said bitterly "Her and Oriana both. I tied them, and when I was done I tied my own legs and gagged myself. All he had to do was to tie my hands...he could have used that stake on you..."

"Well, he didn't"

"Not thanks to me. I should have done what you did."

Barnabas shook his head sadly. "You couldn't"

"It could be done. You managed it."

"Because I could disappear and reappear behind him. And because I knew, _kmew_, not just believed, that Oriana would be better off with her throat cut than in his hands. If it hadn't been for that, I would have done what you did."

Phillip didn't look convinced. Probably wouldn't be for a long time.

"What about your sax?" Barnabas decided to try another tack. "don't you play it anymore?"

"I...I don't feel like playing in public..."

"Why not?"

"I am afraid of...of the people. Of them looking at me. I mean, how long until they start wondering what it was that Tom did to me? Will they see me as you did, all trussed up, face down, my pants down to my knees...?"

He couldn't continue. He sobbed uncontrollably while Barnabas held him.

"You just play Phillip. You are good. For whatever reason they'll come to see you, they'll stay for the music."

Phillip shook his head. "No. I am too afraid."

Barnabas said nothing to this. He knew that the sooner Phillip started playing again and keeping busy, the better it would be for him, but it was difficult to convince Phillip of that.

"Is that the reason why you avoid Iris now?" he finally asked.

"Part of it."

"What's the other part?"

"I want to break off the engagement. I already wanted to before...before this happened."

It didn't surprise Barnabas. That engagement, as the affair that had preceded it, had been just the result of Angelique's magic. And now that was gone.

His face darkened remembering what he had been told about her. Tom had probably killed her and buried her body somewhere. Strange of Angelique to let herself be overpowered so easily. But then she had been on the edge of a breakdown the last time he had seen her.

That last time... he probably had pushed her into it, weakened her will, her fighting instinct, letting her be e3asy prey to Tom Jennings.

"I don't think that Iris really wants me. She just wants to get back at you."

"I suspected that."

"And you said nothing?"

"Iris is one of those persons who can get very obstinate if you contradict them. If prefer to let her find out for herself. What about you? Did you want her?"

"In a way. We had become friendly. She came to listen to me play and we talked a lot. I still miss Megan. Maybe I wanted to hurt you."

"Like I owed you a woman?"

"Yes."

Barnabas sighed. "But that's not a good basis for a marriage"

"No." Phillip agreed. "Do you know why she's mad at you?"

"I guess my fling with Maggie has something to do with it?"

"A bit. But most of all she resented the casual way that you were off to Wyncliffe and had not time for her anymore."

"But we agreed that we would not have a commitment."

"It is not that she didn't want one. She was just scared of what a commitment to you might mean."

Barnabas' hand rested over his mouth.

"That's right." Phillip nodded. "it scared her all right. She had hard time both puling you close to her and trying to keep at a safe distance at the same time."

"It is complicated, all right" Barnabas acknowledged.

Then Phillip shivered. Barnabas took him in his arms and held him there, knowing that it would take a time until Phillip calmed down.

* * *

What was happening in Vicky's room? Roger wondered. Still at this hour the light hadn't been turned off and there was a strange breathing noise coming from underneath.

Roger glued his ear to the door. Yes, it was a breathing sound, all right. He tried the door. Maybe he could open it a crack...

"Somebody is trying to get in" Nicholas said, taking a gun.

"No killing" Vicky said quickly "We cannot afford it. Send Derek to handle it."

There were two of them, Vicky and Nicholas. What were they saying? Roger bent forward, pushing the door open a bit more. Maybe he could see what they were doing...

Then strong hands seized him.

"Don't move." Derek said in a strange, dreamy voice "don't make a noise."

He opened Roger's collar with mechanical movements. "Just don't move and it won't hurt."

Roger shoved him back and ran for the stairs. Derek ran after him and caught him, trying hard to pinion his arms.

Nicholas ran out of the room, gun in hand.

Derek and Roger were on the floor. Derek had managed to put one hand over Roger's mouth and was using the other one to hold him down.

"All right" Nicholas put his gun to Roger's temple "Don't do anything or..."

There was a light, and approaching footsteps.

"What's the matter?" Quentin asked from the end of the corridor.

"I..." Nicholas made his speech slurred. "I tripped coming up the stairs."

"Drunk as always" Quentin shrugged and turned back.

Nicholas waited until Quentin had closed his door and turned to Roger.

"All right." he said opening Roger's collar. "now you be a good boy and let Derek do."

Roger would be now in Derek's control, just as Phillip was.

That is, if Phillip's latest experience hadn't dislodged it. Well, even if it did, it would make no difference. If he talked about bottles now, it would be about the one that Tom had used on him.

"Is it done?' Vicky asked him as he went back to her room.

"Yes. Roger won't give us any more trouble now."

"I hope so." Vicky shrugged. "Next time that you get a vampire under control, try to pick one who isn't a klutz."

* * *

Willie stirred the food in his plate. He wasn't hungry. In fact, the vegetables looked repulsive.

"Anything wrong?" Louella asked.

He shook his head. Anything wrong...when everything seemed to be wrong all at once.

"You don't like the food?"

He shrugged. If only she'd stop talking. Her voice made a rasping sound. It grated his nerves to hear her talk.

"Tell mw what's wrong" she insisted "Is it money? They shop?"

"Will you shut up!"

* * *

"Can't you tell me when he'll be back? Megan insisted.

"No, I can't"

There was something odd about Delia, Megan noted. It was as if...as if she was afraid.

Afraid of what? Derek? It made no sense.

"Why do you need him?" Delia asked warily.

"I want to offer him a job. I am somewhat shorthanded with Chris in Wyncliffe, and Angelique...:"

She didn't finish. She didn't want to remember what had happened to Angelique. Sandy had been lucky...but Angelique...

She had to get out of Delia's house.

She remembered how she had screamed at her, how she had humiliated her by demoting her and giving Tammy her old position... And now she could not tell her how sorry she was.

What had Tom done to her before he killed her? What she knew of what Tom and done to Sandy and Phillip...

She tried to hold on to hope, remembering that Angelique was hard to kill, and that sooner or later she would come back.

Frank was already getting drunk at the Blue What. Megan saw him from the window and decided to share his misery.

She sat in the stool next to him. "You are thinking about her, too." she said, sadly.

"I never gave her a chance." he said " Of course, she could not stop thinking of Barnabas. But I couldn't stop those thoughts I had, either. What she was, what kind of powers she had, what she could do to me if she got angry. I was afraid half the time that she did to me what she did to Barnabas... I never tried to know her.

"Do you want to hear my piece?" she said with bitterness "I virtually kicked her out. We were friends. The agency was both our idea. And she was good at it. But because of that one mistake in judgment when it came to handle the Falchi girl I humiliated her in public. I forced her to quit Collinsport. And...And that creep took advantage of that... Nobody missed her...We thought that she was away while she was...she was...

Tears ran down her cheeks. Frank held her hand and squeezed it.

"You didn't know it was going to end like this. "If you had known..."

"If I had known, I'd personally delivered that creep to Dr Hoffman. I hope he rots there!


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"I am sorry about this." Sebastian said apologetically as they went back inside. "but Roxie says that this is the only way you can to out."

Angelique growled. That was all the protest the gag allowed her. Sebastian handled her much more gently than Tom had, but except for that, she might as well be chained in the basement.

She looked with hatred at her manacles. As long as cold iron was around her wrists, she was powerless. Whatever Roxanne wanted, she had to long ago with it.

"I hope that it wasn't too bad." Sebastian said, removing the gag.

"No, it wasn't" she lied.

They looked at each other for a few moments. Sebastian seemed ashamed of what he was doing.

"For how long have you and...and her known each other?"

"Quite a long time. I can't tell you exactly when I met her. I was too stoned for that."

"Yes." Angelique nodded. "You were a junkie, weren't you?"

"Yes. She dried me up. Made me go through withdrawal, then paid the hospital bill when I came down with hepatitis. I just moved in with her."

"And you always do whatever she asks you?' she sounded respective.

"I always found good reason to."

"Of course, there is not way you can disobey her. She keeps you on a tight leash."

"She doesn't" Sebastian protested. "But I guess you would not understand who it is with us."

"Have you ever gone to bed with someone who wasn't her?" She moved closer to him. "just for once?"

He laughed.

"Are you trying to seduce me?" he said, taking her by the shoulders. "Yes, you are. The next thing, you'll ask me to remove your manacles. Then you'll hit me over the head and escape."

"I won't"

He laughed again.

"You are too obvious, lady."

* * *

"You are late." Louella said to Willie.

He just shrugged. He didn't care.

"Where have you been?

"Are you cross-examining me?" he grunted, moving menacingly towards her.

"I was worried."

"You don't have to. After all, I wasn't at Quentin's prayer group."

"Willie!" Louella protested.

Willie shrugged again, and turned his back to her.

* * *

Alma noticed how nervous and unsteady Amy still was.

"Are you coming to see Elsa?" she asked.

"If you don't mind" Amy said, self-deprecatingly.

"Of course, I don't mind!" Alma said vehemently "Elsa likes you and you seem to be the only one who can talk sense into her. After all it isn't your fault that your brother is a nut...oh, oh, I did not mean that."

Amy managed to keep calm. "It is all right. The fact is that that he is in Wyncliffe and Dr. Hoffman has said that he is dangerous." she frowned. "I can't even visit him."

"She doesn't let you?"

"She says that it only makes things worse. She tried to explain the same to Sabrina, but she won't listen. She'll be coming back here, in spite of what Dr. Hoffman says.

"And you?"

Amy shook her head. She would not go to see Tom. Chris she would see, but not Tom.

* * *

Sandy could not fully control her shivering. After all the days that had passed, she still feared to find Chris Jennings stalking her.

No, not Chris. Tom Jennings. She had been told that. She had to remember it so that she would not hate Chris when he returned from Wyncliffe, his twin having been exorcized from his body.

And now there seemed to be more bad news. She could see it in the face of the woman in front of her.

"Dr. Hoffman...I mean Anderson...I mean..."

"Either way is right." Julia smiled mechanically.

"What do you want?'

"I have to talk to you about Chris."

"I see" the blood drained from her face. "I know that it wasn't Chris, but Tom who...who..."

Julia took her hand firmly "You must be strong, Sandy."

"What's wrong?" her eyes widened. "did he escape?"

"No. No chance of that. He's well locked up."

Sandy relaxed, but not fully. "what is it, then?"

"He bit you in the legs. Several times."

"Yes, he did, but..."

"The next full moon, you..."

"You say that I am a werewolf?" Sandy screamed at her. "Me?"

"You must be strong. I can help you. You'll have to come to my clinic, to see what can be done."

"No!" Sandy shrieked. "Not me!"

* * *

"How do you like it?" Oriana held her breath for Barnabas' answer.

"It is a good article. But must I be so prominent in it?"

"Well, it is a matter of public record that it was you who engineered the whole deal with he Indians. And you were once Representative Evans campaign manager."

Barnabas returned the article to her. "I always thought that you had a good story like this inside you. You are not talking to 'People' magazine, I hope."

"It is too good for them. I am going to try 'Harper" or "The Atlantic."

"Too bad you couldn't get an interview with Old Munsungan. But I can arrange for it the next time you come here. If you want to come back here, that is."

"Of course, I want to come back here!" she touched his cheek, tenderly. "It as tough at first, but I got to liking you. I certainly want to see you again. One thing, tough..."

"What's that?"

"What happened to Sister Kira?"

Barnabas could not help shivering. Oriana had gotten to the one story that should never get out. For Maggie's and the children's sake.

"She died in an accident." he said lamely.

"I think that there is more to it than that."

Denying it would do no good. She knew how to dig out facts and when she did...

"Have you been asking about her in town?"

"Not yet. I wanted to ask you first."

He was relieved. Maybe there was a way out.

"All right. "I'll tell you. But first I want to check something with Phillip. Do you mind waiting a few moments?"

He raced to Phillip. "Get to Julia on the phone, and tell her to get here quickly."

* * *

Carolyn laid herself on the bed, stretching herself across it, invading the space that the marriage contract said belonged to Quentin.

Where did Quentin sleep this night? It didn't matter as long as it wasn't with her. He wasn't the type to be careful about birth control, and she couldn't get on the Pill because she actually wanted to get pregnant.

But not by Quentin. Never with someone with an hereditary werewolf curse.

People were talking behind her back. But as long as Quentin was the legal father, nothing would keep her from having a Collins heir.

What would the baby look like? She reviewed the men she had slept with since her marriage. Some blond, some red-haired, some think, some tall... all of them healthy specimens. All of them fit to give her a healthy child.

Her eyes closed. Yes, they were healthy, but something was missing. Something she had not had since Jeb died.

...Jeb. She missed him. The way he would take her in his arms and hold her. And the feeling of power flowing from him to her.

For a moment she felt that Jeb was close to her, lying next to her.

"I've come back, Carolyn" she heard the voice as the dream began to overtake her. "as I promised I would."

* * *

The stone burned in Nicholas' hands. He bit his lips, trying to hold on, in spite of the pain.

"Keep concentrating" Vicky hissed over his shoulder. "We have to establish the bridge."

A trickle of blood appeared over the stone.

"A little more." Vicky ordered. "Just a little more."

Nicholas shook his head. "I can't hold on much longer."

Vicky motioned to him to be silent. For some seconds she seemed to be listening for something.

"You can let go, now."

Nicholas did, with a groan.

"You did well this time. Soon he will lie with her in her bed."

Nicholas looked at his burned hands. "Isn't there another way?"

"None other. Bear it and you'll be rewarded."

* * *

Julia paced the foyer, furious.

"You mean that Barnabas is now telling her about Sister Kira?" she growled at Phillip. "does he know the risk he's running?"

"He said that if he didn't, she'd keep on asking questions."

"I wonder why he was born with brains, since he hardly uses them."

In was a while before Barnabas showed up, and the way hadn't improved Julia's temper.

"I imagine you know all the details of it" she said to Oriana. "Including Maggie."

"All of it."

"And you suppose she'll keep quiet about it?" she turned to Barnabas "the story is too good. Russian spies. Evangelicals. Murder in the Longworth Building. Deranged children. It practically writes itself."

"She will forget about it."

"Forget?"

"He said that you could do it." Oriana said quietly "I know why the story has to be buried. But in order not to be tempted later, I'd let you make me believe that all there is to it is Nicholas' drunken mumblings and an aborted attempt of Quentin Collins to make trouble on orders from his wife."

"That's why I called you." Barnabas said. "I know that you can do it."

"You took a big risk with that." she grumbled.

"She asked me point blank. If I hadn't answered her, she'd have gone on asking questions of everybody. Come Julia, you know this way is best."

* * *

"What is the matter with you? Iris snapped " you act as if you don't want to see me around."

"It isn't that." Phillip protested.

"Isn't it?" she laid a hand on his arm.

Phillip flinched without thinking.

"You can't stand me, is that it?"

"Please" Phillip said "I had a rough time. Barnabas says that I have to take it easy."

"He says that? What else does he say? To lay off me?"

"No. Only that I need time to adjust. And that I'd better take it easy."

"Does he put his arm around you?"

"Sometimes."

"I bet that you don't flinch when he touches you."

The bell at the door interrupted their argument. Iris raced back to the counter, leaving Phillip to argue with himself.

It was Vicky. her fingers were already stroking some piece of cloth."

"It is a very good cloth." Iris said.

"It feels that way." Vicky admitted.

A shiver ran through Iris. For a second it had seemed as if Vicky had hissed.

"It seems too expensive, though."

"The good stuff usually is. It is a fine fabric" she smiled. "And certainly Mrs. Collins can afford it."

"She can, but that's no reason for her to be robbed."

Iris stiffened. "It you want to buy fabric, buy it. But if you came here to insult me, I will have to ask you to leave."

"What do you mean, insult you?"

"Miss Winters, you know that until recently I was Barnabas Collins' lover. And I know that Mrs. Collins hates him."

"I don't care about your private life." Vicky said smoothly "but I think that you are a fool to get that close to that...that creature."

Before Iris could answer the door opened again.

"Any of you Democrats?" the girl asked.

"I am." Iris said.

"Then I can convince you to vote for Kennedy in the coming caucus?"


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

He would have a headache tomorrow, Quentin thought, if he didn't get it before, that is. All that loud music, all that stale air...

He wondered why he did come here. It certainly wouldn't do any good to his position in the evangelical movement...

Hang the evangelical movement! For how long must he deceive himself? Finding Jesus hadn't done him a bit of good. He was chained to Carolyn, on a measly allowance, and threatened with jail if he ever tried to skip town.

She wanted him as legal father for her child. Several children to secure the succession..

How could he have gotten himself in such a mess? He had promised to himself that he'd make good. Why couldn't he? Why couldn't he keep hands off Louella Loomis? Why had he trusted Kira Petofi? No, that hadn't been his fault. Better men than he had been deceived by her...But the embezzlement... He had meant to put the money back, honest! But Nicholas caught him at it before he could do it, and that's why he was in the mess he was in...

Was it worth it to get rid of the werewolf curse to end up like this? Getting drunk on out-of-town singles bars, trying to find a bed partner that didn't depress him. He had no taste for the cold-blooded mechanical sex offered him. Women who timed his performance, comparing him to the previous one, finding him wanting, and letting him know it.

He thought bitterly of Barnabas. In the past he had felt smug about him. He had beaten his curse, and Barnabas hadn't. Such thoughts usually gave him comfort, but not now. He knew that Barnabas would not put up for a moment wit the kind of trash that Carolyn submitted him to. Barnabas had too much dignity for that.

And he had none. No curse, and no dignity either. Barnabas, in the end, had gotten the best of the bargain.

A blond woman approached him. She had had a drink too many, but then, that's why they came to this place. To get drunk and end up in bed with a complete stranger. She had a nice body, and they could spend a fun night together.

"My name is Marcy Robins" she said. "and I am a Capricorn."

"Mine is Barnabas Collins, and I am a Virgo."

* * *

Iris was angry. It took all her willpower not to yell at him.

"What are you doing to Phillip?" she asked.

"I am helping him get back to his feet."

"And telling him to stay away from me, too."

"No." Barnabas shook his head.

"I saw the scars on his neck. I know that you can make people do what you want them to do. And you are forcing him to stay away from me."

"No, he's doing it on his own."

"But you certainly approve."

"Yes." Barnabas knew that the time for fencing with Iris was past. She should be told the truth for Phillip's sake. "I think that in his state, you are the wrong influence to have."

Iris crossed he arms and stabbed him with her eyes. "So we are back at the beginning, when you accused me of playing SM games with you."

"You are a sexually demanding woman. Very demanding. And that can only hurt him."

"You still haven't got any tact."

"Do you know what Tom Jennings did to him?"

"There you go again. Anytime I have a complaint, it is, be gentle because something awful happened to him. and it is too terrible to say it aloud. Well, I am getting tired of hearing that."

"Well, it is true."

"What happened? Did Tom beat him up, and he can't stand that?"

Barnabas shook his head "If only it was that.."

"So what did he do?"

"Tom played with Phillip's genitals in full view of two women. For quite a while, getting responses from him. Then he used a bottle to..." he tried to say it the most harmless way possible. "to give him an enema and wait until it took effect. Again with two women looking."

Iris reeled.

"Yes, it was that bad." Barnabas continued pitilessly "You do not like hearing about it. How much do you think he liked enduring it, and reliving it each time something triggers the memory?...And you may be triggering it, without meaning to."

Iris sat down, shaking her head. "I...I had no idea... Did not know it had been so bad'

They were silent for a while. Barnabas wondering if he had been right sharing the information with Iris, Iris thinking how many times her own thoughtless words might have rubbed salt on Phillip's wounds.

"I know that you are mad at me." he finally said. "You have reason to be. But you are a fair-minded woman and I always could talk to you."

Iris nodded, still struck dumb.

"I couldn't say this to you, earlier, but I don't think that Phillip and you love each other." he took her hand. "there used to be a burn mark on your wrist, do you remember it?"

Iris nodded.

"Phillip had one just like it. They were the doing of Angelique, who wanted me to go back to her." he smiled sadly "as she did to Josette and Jeremiah once. And then you were angry at me, and thought you could get even by marrying Phillip."

There was a flicker of protest in Iris's eyes, but she was too shaken to say anything yet.

Knowing that he would not have another opportunity to say it, Barnabas hammered his point home.

"Getting even is a lousy reason to marry anyone. I married Angelique to get even with Josette after she married Jeremiah. You know how that marriage turned out. I have no claim on you. But if you marry anyone, don't do it to spite me."

* * *

"When are you coming back?" Delia asked Derek.

"Why? Derek asked back, harshly.

"Because I want to know whether or not to wait for you."

"I will come when I will come." Derek said. And before she could react, he disappeared.

Delia shivered. Derek was so... so strange. He was cold, remote,...ruthless, even...

* * *

"How's she doing?" Roxanne asked over the phone.

"I think she's asleep. Look Roxie, do I have to keep her in chains like that? After all, you have bitten her."

"The moment you take off her chains I lose my power over her."

In her room Angelique listened to Sebastian on the phone. Why did Roxanne have to call every day? If it wasn't for that, she would be able to convince Sebastian to release her. She could see that he was weakening.

She was tired of being shut in like this, of having her hands chained, and her will weakened by Roxanne's power. Maybe she owed something to Roxanne, but enough was enough.

"You better keep an eye on her. She's a trouble maker."

* * *

"Did you have anything to so with the latest Indian demand?" Xavier asked Barnabas sourly.

"The boar's hair embroidery? Yes. They proposed porcupine quills, but I am not that willing to put the porcupines in the endangered species list.

"And you said you'd talk to Mrs. Miller?"

"Yes. I am now in good terms with her."

"You can talk to her, certainly, in Wyncliffe. Her husband just drove her there."

* * *

"Are you ready to start with Chris' treatment?" Roxanne asked Julia.

Julia shivered. She would not call it treatment, proper, but that was what Roxanne wanted, and she was powerless to resist.

"It might be a problem when Barnabas comes back." Roxanne continued "he's likely to get squeamish. Well, we can figure out ways of making sure he never knows."

Tom was heavily doped, and in straightjacket. Still the hatred in his eyes was visible as the orderly brought him.

"Make him lie down."

If the orderly was surprised to see that strange girl ordering Julia, he did not show it. He had learned not to notice anything odd that Julia did in order to keep his job.

Tom was strapped down on the couch.

"You can leave now." Roxanne told the orderly.

Julia looked at him go. "You'd better make sure of him." she said.

"Don't you dare give me orders." Roxanne hissed at her.

"I didn't mean to."

Roxanne shrugged. No point in screaming at Julia. She was giving her what she wanted: two, maybe three, werewolves. If she wanted to vent her frustrations at somebody, she could go see Angelique.

"Well, Tom." Julia said "We know that you are inside Chris' body. And we are going to get you out and make sure you don't come back."

"Just try making me." Tom said.

"We have ways." Roxanne said softly "And you won't like them. It is a form of electroshock."

"It will take more than that to make me leave."

"We have plenty of time and patience." Julia said evenly.

"And we won't be the ones who'll be hurting, either. "Roxanne added .

Before he could answer, Roxanne pushed the rubber piece in his mouth. It would prevent his injuring his tongue as well as his screaming.

Now they were going to put the wires in his head, he thought, then let the electricity through... Well, he could survive it.

Then Julia undid his belt and pulled his pants down.

He fought against the straps in panic.

"He finally figured out where the wires are going" Roxanne said.

* * *

"Are you going back to Wyncliffe?" Phillip asked Barnabas nervously.

"Yes. You think that you can manage in my absence?"

"Should be able to." Phillip grimaced "it is time I stood on my own two feet. And, by the way, I am playing the sax again."

"Good! I knew you would."

Phillip rested his head on Barnabas' shoulder. and stood there, not moving.

"It is all right, Phillip, it is all right."

Willie stood at the door. He had come to see Barnabas, had hoped to talk to him of what was bothering him.

But Barnabas was too busy for him...

Angrily, he turned back and walked home, cursing at each slippery ice patch he encountered.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Barnabas parked his car in the spot that Julia had assigned to him.

He wondered about Oriana. He hoped she had had an uneventful trip back to New York. He knew that it would have been easy to make her stay, but it would also have been wrong. Maybe she would love him for a while, but in the end she would be as angry with him as Iris was.

"Well, well. I don't see much of you these days" David said behind him.

He turned, smiling. "But I am always glad to see you."

"Specially now that I am straightening up, eh?" David smiled widely. "I got a job here, and I rent my own room, and everything."

"You seem to be doing all right, then."

"Yes. It takes time, but I am making it. Now, if Julia would finally cure me, I'd have no more problems."

"You'll have to be patient. It isn't easy"

David nodded thoughtfully "I was wondering, why couldn't I get a deal like what Chris got? I know that he is in bad shape, but that's because he had a twin brother, nothing else. I certainly don't have any brothers, dead or alive."

"I do not thing you'd want that."

"Why not?"

"Because one day you might want to have children. And you can't condemn them to grow with the curse. Chris had a vasectomy, and he did it because he knows what kind of a childhood that can be."

"What about you? Did you have a vasectomy, too?"

"I don't need it. I am sterile."

David muttered something while looking down.

"You just have to learn to be patient."

David sighed "I could be taking courses in college right now if I didn't have to worry about the full moon."

Barnabas eyes lit up. "You really want to go to college, now?"

"Yes. I want to make something of myself. And I want to make it on my own. You see, I never had to accomplish anything on my own. I always had the family money to fall back on. Whether I tried hard or not, I didn't have to worry about the future. But now, now I am finally managing on my own. Did I ever thank you for making me take that job at the A&P?"

"I knew that it would be good for you."

"It was. For the firsts time I was good at something, even if it only was stacking boxes. Let me tell you, I'll never look down on Willie again."

"Good. About your plans for college? You want to be a lawyer?"

"No. That's expected from the aristocracy. I want to be an engineer. Or a chemist."

Barnabas shook his head. "I can't believe that you have finally grown up." he said with quiet pride.

"It happens to the best of us." David laughed. "You know that you are a couple of days late?"

"Late? For what?"

"For this" David opened his shirt cuff.

"There is no need anymore. You are doing fine without my help."

"Do it, anyway. Look I am doing all right now. But still there are times when I get down in the dumps and I feel tempted.. I could slip and I know what I stand to lose if I do. It makes me feel better to know that, no matter what, I will not help myself to Julia's medicine cabinet."

Barnabas took David's hand.

"And besides, it is good to be reminded that you care about me."

* * *

"The odds are ten to one to Carter" Derek said.

"I say that Kennedy has a better chance than that." Big Bill insisted. "I saw him campaign once, and he's got what it takes."

"No way that Kennedy beats Carter."

"You will see, you will see..." Big Bill insisted.

"Want to bet on it?"

"How much?"

Well, another bet. Derek was pleased with himself. he stood to make a lot of money.

Of course, if Kennedy won, he'd have to wrangle the money out of the sheriff, or out of Nicholas, for that matter. but he expected Carter to win.

And with Jerry Brown making it a three way race, there should be a way to juggle the bets so as to come out ahead...

* * *

Sebastian seemed to be sleeping. Angelique tiptoed to the telephone. She could not break Roxanne's mental hold enough to hit him over the head and escape. But she thought that she could try phoning Megan.

She picked up the receiver. Holding it and dialing at the same time was difficult for her with her hands chained together.

She listened to the rings. "Come on, baby, answer" she said with exasperation.

Seven rings, eight...was nobody there? Not even Joe?

Then the sound of a receiver being picked up reached her.

"Haskell Investigations" Megan's voice said at the end.

And immediately a click followed.

"Roxanne was right." Sebastian said. "you are a troublemaker."

"It is Megan. She is my friend. I have to tell her that I am all right."

"Can't you understand anything?" Sebastian shook her. "Roxie knows that that woman is one of them. And you want to call her and give the whole thing away? No one, no one is to know that you are here, understand?"

"Let me go!" she pleaded "you are hurting me!"

"Roxanne said what to do if you ever made trouble. And I am going to do it now!"

He pushed her roughly to a chair and tied her upper arms to it.

"It is too tight" she complained. "please..."

He said nothing while securing her ankles and tying her chained hands to her tights.

"What area you doing?"

"You area going to stay here this way for a while Roxanne said that this will teach you a lesson."

He gagged and blindfolded her. Then went back to the kitchen to make himself some coffee.

That kind of confinement would make her think twice before she tried anything like that again.

* * *

Sandy was hugging herself when Barnabas came in. Not her, she thought, she could not be a werewolf. Her husband could not have committed her like that...

Bering a werewolf, being shut in a mental institution were things that happened to other people, not to Sandy Miller.

"I was always a good wife, a good mother. Why did this happen to me?"

"Good evening, Sandy." Barnabas said to her.

She grimaced, as if wondering what was good about the evening.

"Something is very wrong." he said.

"The full moon, that's what's wrong." she shouted to him "and my husband having me locked up as if I was...as if I was..."

Julia had explained to him that while there was no need to commit Sandy, her husband's reaction had been so Neanderthal that she considered it better for her psyche to be away from him.

"I know how tough it is, Sandy, I have been there myself."

"So what do I have to look forward to?"

"We can help you. We can make it so that you won't be a danger to anybody, not even yourself,, while at the same time living a full life."

"Did Dr. Hoffman-Anderson say that I needed a pep talk?" she asked hostilely.

"It is my job to help you. And I can do it. "he took her hands. "you don't have to explain to me what you are going through. It is a knife sticking in your guts, being twisted around. And worse, those you love, those who should be supporting you, instead they have rejected you. You say that your husband had you committed? My mother killed herself rather than look at me. The woman I loved, she did the same. My father..." his voice became low "what my father did to me, to his only son...Being committed here would have been a kindness compared to what he did."

"Herb took my children from me. He said they were in danger."

"Only on nights of the full moon. The rest of the time, there should be no problem."

"Herb does not believe that."

"Well, I do. And I guarantee that he'll come around."

Herb would come around if he had to break every bone in his body...

Sandy shivered. "When...when the full moon comes, will I have to be chained.?"

"It is safer." he said. "we could use sleeping pills, but the danger of addiction is to great. And the mixture of addiction and lycanthropy is not something I wish to see."

"I will have to go down to the cellar and be chained like...like an animal. Put in a cage" she sobbed. "maybe you could even charge admission, like in the zoo."

Barnabas hugged her. "It won't be so bad" he promised her "and you won't be alone. I will be with you the full time."

Roxanne and Julia waited outside.

"You think that he'll get to her?" Roxanne asked mockingly.

"Your interest in her isn't purely humanitarian, I suppose" Julia answered while scratching here neck pensively.

"I can't afford humanitarian right now. Later, when this dies down, it will be different. I might even work for human rights or something. " she paused. "Treat her like David."

"Which means, give her a lot of talk, injections of saline, and some vomitive every now and then, keep her busy and thinking she's getting better while all the time she's going nowhere?"

"Right, there is a good reason for it."

"A good reason? Like there is a good reason for what we are doing to Jennings?"

"What we are doing for Chris Jennings? You know that we have to break the possession. And Chris will thank us afterwards. In the meantime I need all the werewolves we can get our hands on.

* * *

Where was Louella? She was late, already.

Willie paced the floor, angrily. Did she know what time it was? Did she think that she had nothing better to do with the truck? After all, what did his customers care if he was late? They never got cranky and Louella had all the time in the world to go visiting.

There was nothing else for her to do., of course. And if there was, what was Willie for? So there was no food? Willie could eat at McDonalds's

Willie swore. First Barnabas, then Louella. They were taking him for granted, weren't then? Well, he would teach them different, he would.

Louella parked the truck and went in. It was later than she wanted it to be, but the roads had been icy and that had slowed her. She hoped that Willie had not worried too much.

"Well, you finally decided to show up."

"I am sorry. The roads were icy."

"Sure, and fall all, I did not need the truck myself. Our customers don't mind late deliveries and sloppy service."

"But you said it was free."

"For a couple of hours, not until Easter."

"I am sorry." Louella lowered her head. "It took me longer than I thought."

"Sure, sure, you were too busy to think of me. After all, I am only your husband, not your lover."

"Willie!"

"You went to see that woman, Sandy Miller, didn't you? The one who was your friend when you were sleeping with Quentin."

"She's sick."

"Did you see Quentin too?" Did he take you to bed again?"

"I saw Barnabas. He said that he was going to treat Sandy and..."

"Barnabas! So that's it. He has no time for me, but he certainly has time for you. Why? Why can see you when he's too busy with Phillip each time I want to talk to him? Is it because he is now your lover?"

"Willie..." she was now very pale. "you don't know what your are saying..."

"I know very well what I am saying, slut! You are screwing Barnabas behind my back. No, don't try to escape. Stay here!"

"Willie..." she tried to back away.

He hit her.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"Poor kid." Barnabas commented to Julia "she's scared."

"But you think you can get somewhere with her?"

"It will take time and patience, but I can do it." he looked to a side. "but it brought so many memories..."

"About yourself?"

"Yes. The first time it happened to me... I was so afraid, so lost, with nowhere to turn, with no help whatsoever... No. I had Ben. He tried to help me, but he didn't know. As Megan put it, it was no surprise that I panicked and managed to make every major mistake in the book. Maybe that's what happened to Tom, only that he got twisted too much until it was too late. I wish we could have reached him."

"By the time we met him it was too late."

"How's Chris doing?"

"Rather slow." Julia wondered what would happen if Barnabas found out what the treatment was.

"I have tried to reconstruct what goes on inside Tom's mind." Barnabas continued. "I think of him as still being something of a child. A cruel child, but a child nevertheless. His attacks were not particularly sexual in nature... No, don't tell me about the bottle and rests of it. Some of it was sexual in nature. But too many other things he did to Sandy and Phillip was not. :plucking hair from their armpits. picking their noses, playing the piano on their ribs, chewing on their fingers, twisting their ears, ticking the soles of their feet, to see how they convulsed,, poking their spines... It was just a child playing with dolls, with all the parts of the dolls, including the genitals... Even the bottle, it was a child who things that flatulence jokes are the sumum of wit, and who thinks it is fun to watch people soil themselves... I think that Tom's might be a case of arrested development."

"Not to mention the help he had from Angelique."

"He met her too late to make a difference." Barnabas said quietly "In a way, it was lucky for her that she had fangs when he met her, or he would... would have done to her what he did now. And if anything, it probably improved his behavior. She gave him a new toy to play with, so for a while he forgot his other games."

Julia made an involuntary movement with her head. 'His new games were nasty enough."

"Chris and 'Tom were never that different, Julia. They both had problems stemming from growing up with their curse. I have talked long enough with Chris to know that he is also a case of arrested development. Luckily, in is case, it took a more acceptable tack. But there is a level at which Tom and Chris are basically the same."

"Which makes it easier for Tom to possess Chris." Julia finished the thought for him.

"And tougher for you to exorcize him."

"That's interesting." she paced. Maybe he should be told by what method Tom was being exorcized. He certainly understood the seriousness of the situation.

No. He wouldn't. He would never accept wiring Chris' genitals and shooting electricity through them. She herself found it hard to accept, and were she not in Roxanne's power, she would be unwilling to continue.

"Do you think this can help?"

Julia shook her head. "I hate telling the help that they are right. They tend to get uppity afterwards. But in your case, you may be up to something. Yes. I'll look into it. And maybe we can get somewhere with it."

* * *

Angelique could not keep her hands from shaking. It had been a full day since Sebastian had tied her to the chair and she still couldn't shake off those hours spend in complete darkness and immobility.

Yet Barnabas had to put up with that for years, not just hours like she had. How could he have endured it? And how could she have looked at the chained coffin and enjoyed it?

How she had gloated at him, then, how she had enjoyed his torment...

She had brought death and destruction to everything and everyone he loved and then that...

How could he have found the strength to start over? How had he been able to forgive her?

And she had repaid his kindness by poisoning his love for Iris...

Again, she looked at her chained hands, and she thought that she was only getting what she deserved.

Sebastian heard her trying to contain her sobs. He felt sick inside. How could he have done that to her? Kira at her worst had not done that to him.

Whatever Angelique might have done, she did not deserve to be treated that way. No one did.

"She's a troublemaker" he remembered Roxanne saying "don't let her fool you."

But Roxanne hadn't seen her eyes when he finally released her. Hadn't heard her sob uncontrollably, curled up in a fetal position...

You just don't treat human beings that way.

* * *

Phillip was blowing his sax. It sounded strained, as if he was holding something back. And all the while, he kept taking furtive glances at the audience.

Megan sighed. "Do you think that he should be playing again?"

"It was Barnabas' idea." Iris answered.

"But you don't have any influence on him?"

"We broke up. I finally admitted to myself that all I wanted was to spite Barnabas."

"Are you getting back with Barnabas?"

"He hasn't asked me."

"Do you want to?"

"What's the matter? You are Dear Abby now?"

"I can't keep from wondering what kind of relationship Phillip and I could have had if I hadn't made him divorce me."

"Why don't you get together with Barnabas?"

"We tried that once. Didn't work. We still go to bed together on occasion, though."

The saxophone wailed out of control.

* * *

"You only have four cats now" Elsa stroked the white kitten she held.

Amy nodded. It hurt less now, but still she did not like to think of the way Tom had casually killed one of them before moving on to Phillip.

"Your brother killed it, didn't he?" Elsa insisted.

Amy nodded again, feeling the sickness return to her.

"Oh, Amy, I didn't mean... Honest!"

"It is all right." Amy took a deep breath "it wasn't your fault."

Elsa looked down. Her mother had warned her many times that she said many hurtful things to people, but she hadn't believed it. And now Amy was hurt...

"Do you want to go to the movies?" she asked "Mama can let us have the money for it."

* * *

It hurt him to see how downcast she looked, stirring the eggs in her plate.

"You don't like them?" Sebastian asked.

Angelique shrugged "What's the difference?" she said in a voice that was barely above a whisper.

"Are you still angry with me?"

"What for? Following orders? After all, you do all that Roxanne says."

"Would it help if I said I was sorry that I tied you to the chair?'

"You seemed to enjoy yourself doing it."

"I didn't realize that you would take it so bad."

"Why don't you try that yourself? In the dark, unable to move, to even speak, not knowing how long you have to stay like that?'

"Roxanne said that it would not hurt you."

"Roxanne hates me. She wants revenge."

"Why does she hate you?" he studied her. "Are you the one who made her a vampire?"

"Yes." Angelique admitted "and in a way she is right to be angry with me. But I understand that she brought me here because she needs me for some plan of hers. Now, how can I be of help if she drives me crazy first?"

Sebastian thought about it. She had a point there. Roxanne had said from the start that Angelique would be useful to them. But pushing her to a nervous collapse was the wrong way to go about it.

He decided to discuss it with Roxanne.

* * *

Amy hugged Elsa as they stood in line. It had been a long time that she had come to this part of town. Not since... since the day those men had dragged her into the alley...

"Are you all right?" Elsa asked with concern.

"It is nothing, really."

The people were talking about her, she sensed. And about her brother, the werewolf who had ended up in the nuthouse...

Julia had promised her that Chris would come back. But what if he didn't? What if Tom destroyed him?

She tried to control her nerves. It would do no good to worry about it."

"Are you sure you want to come?" Elsa asked again.

"Yes. I want to go."

The man ahead of them moved. Not too much. But enough for Amy to recognize him. It was the same face that had come down on her that day...

She screamed.

* * *

The mattress gave way, as if supporting a weight. but there was no one there. Carolyn's hand only clasped empty air.

"Come to me, Carolyn" Jeb said.

"I am trying" she extended her arms, reaching as far as he could."

"Come to me."

She tried again, but there was no one there.

"I can't touch you! I can't find you."

"I am here, Carolyn"

"I can't touch you!"

* * *

"Try harder! Vicky ordered Nicholas.

"I can't!" Nicholas released the stone with a whimper of pain. "My hands can't take it anymore."

"You have to!"

"It hurts too much!"

'Not as much as it going to hurt if you fail me."

Nicholas shook his head. "My hands keep getting more sore every day." I can't do it!"

"It has to be done."

"Why not let Derek do it?"

"If Derek gets his hands on the stone, you'll lose all your power over him."

"What about Roger? Derek can make him do it, can't he?'"

"And how are you going to explain his burned palms?"

"Anybody who can get radioactive poisoning chasing after a conspiracy theory, can get burned hands from chasing after another."

Vicky thought about it. "All right " she admitted "we'll use Roger. Get Derek here."

* * *

"What happened to Amy?" George hadn't said much, except disturbing the peace and better come back fast.

He shouldn't have left her alone. Nor Phillip. Yet, Sandy needed him at Wyncliffe, too. And the other patients. If only he could clone himself to be every place where he should be...

Amy was shivering in her seat. At a distance, a man looked hostilely at her, his face clawed. Trask was with him, trying to calm him down.

"What happened?" Barnabas asked.

"As I said, disturbing the peace. She went berserk waiting in line at the movie theater. Se attacked him, and we are trying to keep him from brining charges.

Barnabas turned to the man. "You are one of those who raped her, weren't you?" he asked coldly.

"It wasn't me."

"I tapped enough memories of her to know that you were one of them"

"And are you going to take that to court?"

"I could have taken it to Chris Jennings. He wanted to know your names. Maybe I should have told him. If he had been able to go after you, maybe he wouldn't be in the trouble he is in now."

"He's a nut, and his sister is another. They should both be locked up."

"Well, well..." George interposed himself. "You are pushing your luck. You evaded prosecution for rape. You should be counting your blessings and making yourself inconspicuous."

"You can' t afford to prosecute me. We all agreed not to talk about it anymore. Like I agreed not to talk about how my sister was found wandering about in a daze in 1968, and taking several days to recover."

"Is she better now?"

"Not thanks to you."

"I have made my peace with your sister."

"You didn't. You just terrified her so that she would not bring charges."

"And if she did to me what Amy did, I would say nothing to anybody.."

"Because you can't afford it, that's all. And anyway, what's all this fuss about there being raped? It wasn't as if she was a virgin"

Barnabas struck him. 'Listen, you scum. You better watch whay you say, every word of it. And you better take you complaint and tear it up. And I better not hear another word from you, you understand?"

There was fear in the man's eyes, but he still could not admit defeat. "Are you threatening me? Sheriff, write it up."

"Yes. I am threatening you. For starters, I will have the IRS audit you. Then the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms division will investigate any claims that you are making moonshine. Your nephew with his brand new fishing boat? The narcotics division will get an anonymous tips that he's bringing in cocaine from Canada. I will have your livestock slaughtered because of the presence of anthrax. I have the connections for all of it. You may soon find out how the Federal Government. can really hound a private citizen out of house and home. Now, get up, and tear that complaint you wrote against her, and get out!"

* * *

The light from the stone flew in front of Derek's eyes.

He knew that Nicholas was watching him. He had seen him placing those election bets, and now he could feel Nicholas' displeasure.

"You shouldn't" he heard Nicholas in his mind.

"Why? " What did it matter if he placed a few bets? He did everything else they asked him to do.

"This is important. It has to be done right."

What was important? What was it that had to be done right? Why didn't he even have the right to ask for explanations?

Then the stone pulled him away, made him turn into a bat, and made him fly to Collinsport.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Derek was unhappy. Why couldn't Nicholas leave him alone? What business was it of him if he placed a few bets here and there? He always did what they asked. What more could they want?

Nicholas looked at him coolly

"What were you doing with those people?"

"Nothing" Derek aid sullenly.

Nicholas felt the anger. Was Derek breaking free of his control? After all, Barnabas had done so in 1970. Of course, that had been meant to happen...

"You were making bets."

"Election bets."

Nicholas looked at him severely. "No more of that, you understand?"

"Why not?" Derek said defiantly "I do everything you ask, don't I? I keep the sheriff off your backs, and I got Roger to behave. What is it to you if I make some money on the side?"

"We understand" Vicky said. "There is no reason why you should not."

Nicholas began to protest by Vicky's expression made him think better of it.

"Just a few bets." Vicky continued "Don't get greedy or you'll ruin everything."

"Really?"

"Really. In the meantime there is something we need of you now. We need Roger to do it. Can you handle him?"

"Sure."

Later, after Derek had been briefed on what he needed to do, Nicholas turned to Vicky.

"I thought that you didn't want him attracting attention to himself."

"For him, election betting is not unusual behavior. It would be noteworthy if he didn't do it." Vicky explained. "and I don't want to lose him the way we lost Barnabas because we asked him something he felt strongly against."

"You think that gambling is as important to him as Carolyn was to Barnabas in 1970?"

"I don't know, and I don't intend to find out."

* * *

"You are a tough one, Tom." Julia said.

"You won't get me out of this body so easily."

"Fine" Roxanne said "we can be patient. After all, we are not the ones in pain. Eventually you'll figure out that hanging on to that body is not worth the pain. You like giving pain, not receiving it."

Tom gritted his teeth "I dare you to give me enough pain for that."

"We could do to you some of what you did to Phillip."

"Phillip, poor baby... Give him a push and he cries.."

"You have a faulty imagination, Tom." Roxanne said softly "you think that you are the only one with nasty ideas and that you are never going to be on the receiving end."

"Well Tom?": Julia asked. "Do you want the electrodes somewhere else today? Like up your nose?"

* * *

"Iris" Barnabas took her hand. "I know that I have no right to ask for anything."

"But you miss me." Iris said smiling. "You certainly did not lose any time getting here after you got Amy out of the sheriff's office."

"Yes. I miss you. I miss being able to talk to you."

"Only talk?" Iris seemed hurt. "What about the other? got yourself another girl already?'

"No." Barnabas smiled sadly "I want the other too. But I know what bitterness it can lead to. And why."

"According to you, it was all a trick of Angelique's"

"There was more than that. You were angry with me already. And Phillip still somehow resented me."

"So you don't want me on that basis?"

"I do want you back. But not if it is going to end the same way."

"It doesn't have to."

"We will end pushing each other away."

"We don't have to do that, either."

"We cannot risk being too involved with each other."

"I don't see why not."

"One day I will ask you the question. And it won't be a proposal of marriage."

"What would the question be?

"Would you join me in sleeping by day and hunting for blood at night?"

"I...I don't know." Iris said.

"There, in a nutshell, is the problem between us. And that we cannot change. Yes. I want you, both as a friend and as a lover. But I rather have you only as a friend than lose you all together. " he scowled self-deprecatingly "I should have done like Megan does. Gone in for one-night-stands when it came to sex. Unless you want to take on the responsibility of creating another vampire, you must be content with that."

Iris smiled. "You are not made for one-night-stands " she squeezed his hand "Look, I don't know if it is going to work, but I think we could give it another try."

"The same problem will remain."

"We'll figure out a way around it."

* * *

Phillip took his saxophone and put it in his mouth.

As he always did now, he felt fear before he began playing it. He knew that the instrument could speak more eloquently than words. And when it spoke...

When it spoke, it might tell the people listening what he wanted to keep most secret of all. It would betray to them what Tom Jennings had done to him.

* * *

She was barely eighteen, that kid. Becky Bilbry, her name was She had barely reached the age for voting and had plunged into it with abandon.

And she was now trying to convince him that Kennedy should be the next President.

"But you are a Democrat" she insisted.

"Yes. And we got a Democrat in the White House " Barnabas said.

"He's not a real Democrat."

"Isn't it a bit dark outside for you to be out all alone?"

"I am not a kid!" she was flustered " I came to talk to you about Kennedy."

"I have committed myself to Carter."

"Why? What has Carter done that Kennedy couldn't do better? Isn't it time for some leadership in this country?"

"You came here on foot."

"What does it have to do with the fact that Kennedy should be President?'

"Look, I'll make you a deal. You let me drive you back home, and on the way you tell me all about Kennedy that you think I should know."

* * *

"Jeb?" Carolyn said, waking up.

They were only dreams, Carolyn though bitterly. Jeb wasn't coming back. Yet it had seemed so real, the other night. For a moment it had seemed as if they could touch. A little bit more and his arms would have been around her waist, his mouth over hers...

But then it was gone. All she had was the memory of a dream. Jeb wasn't coming back, ever...

She hugged a pillow. Jeb had promised her he'd come back. Why didn't he do it?

It made no sense to get mad at Jeb. But it had been so real, that dream... why did she have to wake up in her empty bed?

* * *

"When can we start with Roger?" Nicholas asked.

"As soon as the stone is attuned to him. It can't be done overnight." Vicky said "of course, if you are so impatient, you can try doing it yourself."

"No, thanks." Nicholas said quickly "by the way, do you want anything done about the werewolves?"

"Which ones?"

"Chris, David, and Sandy. We could remove them permanently."

Vicky shook her head in grim amusement. "No wonder your plans backfire. You never bother to think things through. At the moment, between Barnabas and Julia, then werewolves are very much out of the way. Chris is locked up for the duration, and they are going to cure David and Sandy. It is better that way. If anything were to happen to any of the werewolves, they might wonder why, and they might remember what the Book of Leviathan, incomplete as it is, says about them. After all, both Barnabas and Julia, not to mention Megan, read it... No, let the furry ones stay safely out of the way at Wyncliffe."

* * *

Barnabas stared aghast at the bruises in Louella's face. There was only one way they could have happened. Willie.

He had know that Willie had a problem. There was something in him that confused brutality with love. And now it had exploded.

Louella looked at him with concern. "It doesn't hurt really" she said.

"He did it?'

"It was my fault, really."

There it was, the whole pattern. Willie's tendencies, compounded with Louella's guilt feelings over her affair with Quentin. She would go on making excuses for him, and he would go on promising to change until he beat her too hard and ended up charged with her murder.

He could not tell her that. She would refuse to believe him until things got to be so bad that she felt the need to escape.

But he would not wait until then. He could do it now.

She had to now how dangerous the situation was, and that it would only get worse. She had to know the full extent of Willie's problem. She had to have the strength to leave him now and keep away from him as long as it was needed.

For her sake. For Willie's sake.

Louella gasped as he nipped her neck. Then his thoughts began to flow into her mind.

She would now get up and go with him, leaving behind a note for Willie. She could stay at the Old House. There was plenty of room, and she could give Phillip a hand.

* * *

Roxanne looked at Angelique insolently. "Seems you have been trying to get Sebastian's sympathy."

"I only wanted to talk to you. Roxanne, you can have your revenge on me, or you can have my help. You cannot have both."

"Well, Valerie, what makes you think that I want your help?"

"Why did you rescue me in the rocks? Why did you bring me here?"

"Let's say that I changed my mind about you."

"I can still help you. I hurt Barnabas too. But he accepted my help when he needed it."

"That's why he has all that rotten luck. He trusts you."

"Please, Roxanne..."

"Please," Roxanne mocked her. "that's all you can fall back on? Throw yourself at my mercy? I did not find much mercy in you."

"Still I can help you."

"That's for me to decide."

Angelique fought her impulse to cry and go to pieces. That was what Roxanne wanted most of all..."

"Of course, you also tried to call your friend, Megan Graham."

"Yes. She's my friend. And she could help you."

"She one of them?"

"Who are them?"

"The Leviathan."

Angelique swallowed. So that was who Roxanne was fighting.

"She is not one of them anymore. She hates them."

"I wouldn't know. There is the matter of her husband. How did he survive that drop? And how come your friend Megan shows so little curiosity about it?"

"She was too busy convincing him to divorce her."

"Or making sure that he didn't recover his memory. I saw fresh wounds on his wrist."

"If it was on the wrist, it was Barnabas."

"He goes to men, after all?" there was an obscene suggestion in Roxanne's words.

"On occasion. But always on the wrist then. It is a quirk of his."

Roxanne pondered it. "Still, I find your friend lack of curiosity suspicious."

* * *

Louella had finally gone to sleep. Barnabas went down the stairs feeling a terrible heaviness. He knew what would have to be done, and he did not like it. He had known that one day he would have to face Willie's problem. And he knew that it would not be easy. He would have to hurt Willie, and that it was done for his own good did not change things much.

Finally the truck pulled up by the entrance. Willie had finally gone home, found his wife gone, picked up the note and come, furious, to get an explanation out of Barnabas.

"What do you think you are doing, keeping Louella away from me like this?"

"Keeping you from hitting her again."

"You hit me a lot worse than that. And I wasn't going to bed with Quentin behind your back!"

"I'll agree that somebody should have taken you away from me then. It didn't happen, and the more the pity. But that's not a reason to do nothing for Louella now."

"I didn't hit her that hard!" Willie complained. "and I said that I was sorry afterwards."

"Yes, you did."

He felt sympathy for Willie. He knew what he must be going through. Had experienced it himself. But he also knew how dangerous his sympathy could be now. Unwillingly, he moved away from Willie, crossing his hands behind his back to keep from touching him.

"I lost my head, that's all."

"And what guarantees that you won't lose your head again?"

"I won't! I swear I won't!"

"You will. Willie, I am not judging you. It is something you cannot control."

"I tell you I won't!"

"I wish I believed that. But I remember what you told me about your childhood. It is a fact that battered children grow up to be batterers themselves. You are a bad risk as a husband and a father."

"So now it is my fault that my old man wiped the floor with me!"

"I didn't say it was." Barnabas said softly. "You have a problem, Willie. A very serious problem. It is not your fault that you have it. But you certainly have a responsibility to do something about it."

"Like what?"

"Like telling me why you lost your head, for starters."

"I don't know." Willie admitted "It was too many things. I needed the truck and she had taken it. To meet Sandy. And you know that she had met Sandy when she was sleeping with Quentin. I couldn't get Quentin out of my mind. I got this idea that she was seeing him again..."

"Oh, Willie..."

"I wanted to talk to you about it. As to what I could do..."

"So why didn't you?"

"I tried. But you were always busy with Phillip. Always with your arm around his shoulders..."

Barnabas shook his head "Willie, Willie..." he said.

"Hell, you never had time for me anymore."

"Suppose I told you that Phillip needed a lot of care, and that I believed you were strong enough to take care of yourself. If I said that, would you accept it?"

"I guess..."

"But that's not really what I want to say."

"What then?"

"Aren't you a bit too old for sibling rivalry?"

"What?"

"Sibling rivalry" Barnabas laughed sadly "For some reason you seem to think of me as your father. I don't mind. In fact, I am flattered. But I don't like it when it makes you behave like a little kid."

"What you mean, a little kid?"

"You find me busy, so you try to get my attention by slapping Louella around."

"It wasn't like that! Well, maybe there was some of it." Willie admitted.

"And I am supposed to reward you for it?

"So I deserve to be kicked around, that's it?"

"No, you are too old for that. And I don't think it is a good idea to hit someone who confuses violence with love. It only makes things worse."

"It doesn't! Look, I can take it...

"Sure, you'll take your punishment like a man. The, once we are done, we will all fall weeping into each other's arms. You, me, and Louella. You'll get plenty of love that way. And you'll come out of it believing that there can be no love unless someone is being beaten, and that the best way to get my attention is to hit Louella. No, Willie, I will not play your game."

"You are wrong."

"I am not."

Willie ground his teeth. "What right have you? Whoever told you that you could butt in like this?"

"I took the right. You should know by now that I am a busybody."

"You got no right! She's my wife and you can't have her here!"

"She is going to stay here until you decide to do something about yourself." he went to the door. "Good night, Willie."

* * *

Sabrina stood patiently in the waiting room at Wyncliffe.

"You shouldn't be here" Julia said when she saw her.

"Chris is my husband. I have to see him."

"It will only make things worse."

"I don't see how."

Julia took a deep breath. "You remember Tom?"

"Chris' brother? He was a creepy guy, all right, from what Chris told me."

"Yes. A real creep. And at this moment he is possessing Chris' body. We are not holding Chris but Tom Jennings here. That's why there is not point to your seeing him. Amy does not see him, either."

Sabrina shook her head. "I want to see him, just once. I will not talk to him, but I have to see him."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"Maybe you shouldn't have said that to him." Louella said.

Barnabas smiled sadly. "It had to be said. And don't sell him short. He went out of here furious, but he'll come back. Once he has thought about it, he'll come back."

Louella looked uncertain. Maybe she shouldn't have come here. Maybe it was all her fault...

"Willie will be back, you'll see" Barnabas insisted. "he has yet to disappoint me."

* * *

Sebastian looked uncomfortable "I am sorry that you didn't have better luck with Roxanne" he said.

Angelique shrugged "You tried. It wasn't your fault that it didn't work out."

"I can see what she's doing to herself."

And to him. It was he, not Roxanne, who had to look at her after he carried out Roxanne's orders. Up to now they had stopped short of brutality, but he knew that it would come to that point very soon.

He had agreed to guard her, but not to drive her crazy He had no desire to inflict on her the things that Kira had done to him.

Angelique wondered as to what Roxanne had said. The Leviathans coming back.

In a way she could understand Roxanne's caution, her insistence in keeping her presence here a secret. The fact was that there were very few people that Roxanne could trust. Barnabas had trusted her once, and she had trusted Sky once...She could not blame Roxanne for not wanting to repeat that experience.

Yet there must be a way to make Roxanne understand that she wanted to help.

* * *

"You don't want to visit Chris?" Sabrina asked, while swirling the brandy in her glass.

"No." Amy said tonelessly. "I will not see Tom. I don't want to think of him as Chris, ever. I will not accept that it could ever be Chris whom I saw... doing those things to Phillip."

"What kind of things?"

"Please don't ask me about them."

"That bad, eh?" she took a sip of brandy "Well, I don't think that seeing him did me a bit of good. Still, I had to see him."

Amy sighed. She didn't feel much like talking. She had never formed a close relationship with Sabrina. In fact, she had gotten close to Chris after he and Sabrina had separated. And now she felt threatened by Sabrina's presence.

"It is going to be dusk soon." she forced herself to say. "you can see him them."

"I will wait. Don't mind about me."

When the door behind the library finally opened, she was still in the same spot, still holding the brandy in her hand.

"Right on time." she said.

He turned in surprise "You startled me." he said.

"That's quite a switch."

"Maybe."

"I have to talk to you."

"Would you mind waiting until I came back? I...have to feed yet."

"There is no need for that." she opened her collar "I can tell you about it while you are at my neck."

He bent down over her, repressing a shiver at the matter of fact way she said it. There was something formidable about Sabrina, something that made him little willing to touch her.

"I will not try to see Chris again." she said "Julia's right on it doing no good."

He grunted his approval. It was all he could do with his mouth busy like that.

"But I am not going back to Washington yet."

A surprise grunt.

"Maggie has decided to support Kennedy's bid and she sent me to help set a support organization. Of course, I will need your help for that."

He grunted again. This time there was disapproval.

"I know that there is much that you can do. After all, this is the first time I do something like this, while you have some experience.."

Barnabas pulled away from her. "I am sorry, but it is no."

"What you mean no?"

"I am not supporting Kennedy."

"But Maggie already promised him..."

"Maggie should have asked me first before she committed me."

"But why don't you want to support Kennedy?"

"Because his only qualifications are Jack and Bobby. If losing your family tragically was all it took, I should be the most qualified candidate."

"So you are supporting Carter?"

"Yes."

"What did he promise you?"

"Nothing, he did not have to."

* * *

Are you fishing for sympathy?" Megan asked Willie coolly "because you are getting none from me. I know why Louella left you."

"I am not. I am just trying to get laid."

"And you come to me, knowing how I feel about creeps that beat up their wives?"

"I am not a creep! And anyway, who are you to call me that? A bloodsucking whore, that's what you are!"

Megan ground her teeth. "You just flunked Seduction 101".

"Look I only want to go to bed. You need it as much as I do. More. You need both the sex and the blood. Why can't it be me tonight?"

"Because you are not the only male around, Willie. I am not that desperate that I will take you."

"Please."

For a few moments Willie had the half-pitiful, half-endearing expression she knew so well, the one that made you want to hug him like a teddy bear.

But she didn't. Barnabas had told her already where his problem lay and she did not want to get Barnabas angry by interfering with what Barnabas called 'therapy'

"No, Willie, I am not available to you."

* * *

Roger was down on his knees, holding the stone.

"No matter how much it hurts, he's not to release it." Nicholas instructed Derek.

Derek nodded and put his hands to Roger's shoulders.

"Let us begin."

* * *

"Carolyn, I am here, Carolyn."

"Jeb" Carolyn moved towards the voice. "is that you?"

"I have come back. I promised you I would."

"Where are you? I can't touch you."

* * *

"Keep trying!" Nicholas ordered.

"His hands are burning" Derek protested "he can get hurt."

Nicholas glared at him. "I didn't ask for your opinion. Just tell him to keep at it."

* * *

"Jeb...Jeb!" Carolyn tossed in the bed.

"Carolyn!"

She felt his breath over her. She extended her hand, touched his chest...

"Jeb, is that you?"

He swept her in his arms and kissed her.

"You have come back!"

Then his mouth was over hers.

* * *

"It is done." Nicholas sighed. "he can release the stone."

Roger's hands were bleeding when he did so.

"You better take care of them" Nicholas threw Derek a tube of medicated cream. "Make sure they heal as much as possible. He has to keep doing this every night."

"Every night?" Derek protested.

"Until Carolyn gets pregnant."

* * *

"So you got a new boarder?" Iris tried to sound casual.

"For a while. Until Willie decides to straighten up."

"And, of course, you could not resist butting in. No, no." she smiled. "Don't get ruffled. I know how much Willie means to you and that it must not be easy for you to cut him off like that."

"It isn't"

She took his hand and squeezed. "You are right about him, and I hope he sees that way."

"So do I."

They were silent for a while, the Iris spoke again. "I am still getting Phillip out of my system " she admitted " it is rougher than I expected. I would think that when the burn mark disappeared that would be the end of it."

"Just give it time."

"You said that Angelique exploited something that was already in us?

"Yes. both you and him resented me and thought to get back at me that way."

"But what about Jeremiah and Josette? She loved you, and he was like a brother to you."

"Josette resented being handed over like a piece of merchandise, even if she loved me. As for Jeremiah..."

He shook his head, amazed that it had taken him so long to figure it out.

"I think he married her to keep her away from me."

"What do you mean?"

"He wanted me for himself."

"Are you saying that he was in love with you?"

"He made an excellent job of keeping me away from marriageable women. I was about thirty five when I met Josette. Too old be unattached, in those days... Of course there had been Priscilla..."

"Priscilla?"

"My first wife. My father married me to her when I was too young to protest effectively. But she died in labor. The child was stillborn. A boy. " he tried not to think of how his own coldness towards his child-wife could have hastened her end. "After that, it was just Jeremiah and me.".

"And he kept you away from women?"

"He was smart about it. He told me that I shouldn't let my father do that to me again. That I should marry for love or not at all. And of course, each time a girl came too close, he convinced me that I really didn't love her. Poor Jeremiah! One day I would find the girl of my dreams and he would lose me. And the worst part is that he didn't even admit that he wanted me in his bed. I feel so sorry for him now."

* * *

Roxanne sat outside, in the snow. The cold didn't bother here and the snow, gleaming in the moonlight gave her a feeling of peace.

If only she had Sebastian with her, now, sharing this beauty...Instead he had to keep an eye on that bitch, Valerie...

She hated Valerie. She had hated Barnabas and Julia Hoffman Anderson. At least she was getting some of her own back with Valerie and Julia. But Barnabas escaped her. There was now way that she could hurt him, as much as she had been hurt because of him.

But there should be a way to arrange that... She remembered one thing that Valerie had said, between whinings. That it had been Barnabas who had bitten Phillip Todd in the wrist...

She smiled. Maybe that was the way to get what she wanted.

* * *

"You have lost him." Sabrina said to Maggie over the phone. "He won't change his mind."

"You can convince him."

"You shouldn't have trashed out the 1967 episode with him. You lost all control over him when you did."

Maggie knew that Sabrina was right. Those days when she could make Barnabas toe the line just by whistling the tune from Josette's music box were gone. Now she would have to take notice of what he said, and start bargaining with him. He would begin to keep tabs on her, and wonder if she was in fact the best candidate for the job.

"Look Sabrina, talk to him again. Maybe there is something you can pressure him with."

"I will try. But don't put your hopes too high."


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Willie stood straight as he spoke.

"All right." he said "If you really want to teach me how to be a grown-up, I am game."

Barnabas smiled proudly "I knew that you'd come through."

"So I am forgiven?"

"Forgiven?" Barnabas looked surprised "didn't I tell you from the start that I didn't judge you?"

"But why did you treat me as if I was a plague carrier?"

"If I didn't, would you be here now?"

"No." Willie admitted.

"Do you remember the time when you nearly got drunk and Derek stopped you?"

"Yes." Willie nodded. "I certainly managed a lot of self-pity. And no one ever appreciated it."

"Would you care for another dose of the same?"

"What?"

"That for a whole month you won't try to get in touch with either me or Louella."

"Barnabas!"

"We have to get the message to that subconscious of yours that violence is not the way to get love, but a way to be deprived of it. And I believe that you are better off when you are forced to fall back on your own resources."

"But I already know all that!"

"But your subconscious doesn't. The subconscious is a very stupid thing. It takes it years to learn something new. But when it does, it takes dynamite to dislodge it."

"And cutting me off for a month will do it?"

"Also, it will keep you from being too dependent on me."

"I dunno..." Willie shook his head. "All right, I'll try it." he extended his hand. "Shake on it?"

Barnabas shook his head. "No Willie, not own. At the end of your month and I wills shake it. Probably give you a hug, too. But not now."

"Suppose it gets too much and I get drunk."

"Then you'll spend the hangover in the drunk tank. No, Willie. Don't try your pathetic act on me." he looked away. "and I am getting late for my meeting with Frances."

Willie understood that he was dismissed and left., not too happy with the arrangement, but not too unhappy, either.

* * *

Frances Jackson looked strange, Barnabas thought. Reserved, as if she really didn't trust him.

"Anything wrong?" he asked her.

She shook her head "Is is true that you are for Carter?"

'Yes, it is the best we can do."

"I am for Jerry Brown."

"Governor Moonbeam?"

"He has a lot of good ideas."

"He'll never get elected. Do you think that the people in the Bible Belt will vote for him after his safari with Linda Ronstadt?"

"He might win."

"I see that we have an argument on our hands." he sighed. "But that is not why I came here." he smiled apologetically. "you know why I came."

Frances looked at him warily. "I am for Jerry Brown and you are for Carter. If you bite me, you will force me to back Carter, I know."

Barnabas looked heavenward. What was with Presidential elections that made otherwise reasonable people behave like such maniacs? Himself included, because if truth were to be told, he had been tempted to do as Frances suggested.

"I give you my word that I won't" he said. "Is that good enough for you?"

"I...I am sorry. I don't like to distrust you, but..."

"But we've never been on the opposite sides of the political fence before. I sure will be glad when the election is over."

"It was mean of me" she undid her collar. "but I was worried about it."

As he bent over her Barnabas wondered how many of these arguments he'd be hearing in the near future. Maybe he should restrict himself to Carter backers.

He hoped there were plenty of those around, for Carter's sake and his.

* * *

"He said he would? Louella's eyes shone "he's going to do it for me?"

"I told you he'd come through" Barnabas squeezed Louella's shoulder.

"But I cannot see him, write to him, not even phone him.":

"It would only hurt him in the long run. Don't worry. it will only be a month."

A knock at the door interrupted them. It was Sabrina, looking as if she was on the warpath.

"Can you leave us two alone?" she said to Louella coldly. "I don't think he wants you to know what I have to tell him."

Louella left them and Barnabas looked at Sabrina with something resembling fear. What was she up to?

"You still don't want to back Kennedy?"

"No. I gave you my reasons not to."

"Then I will give you a reason to. If you don't I'll reopen the inquiry on Dave Woodard's death. Don't forget that I heard Julia's confession on that one."

* * *

Sebastian watched Phillip Todd perform. Soon he would finish his number and come down for a drink.

And he was supposed to doctor his drink with LSD.

He looked nervously around. Possession of LSD could land him in jail.

But no sign of the law here. And the patrons were too busy either drinking or trying to start affairs to notice him. Except for that woman two tables away. She was giving him an interested look, undressing him with her eyes.

He picked his nose. The effect was instantaneous. Disgusted, she turned her face away, and looked at other promising males.

Phillip finished his number. He felt uncomfortable up there, with so many eyes fixed on him. So many people wondering what had happened to him, so many people hungry for the humiliating, titillating details.

Why was he up there? Giving himself away with each note he blew? The sax would not lie, even to protect him. The damn thing had a life of its own.

He went down to the bar. To his own particular spot where his beer waited for him.

Sebastian saw him come. He took his own beer, laced with LSD and held it close to the one that the bartender had just poured. Knowing that his back blocked Phillip's view and that the bartender wasn't looking, it was an easy matter to push his own beer close to Phillip's and grab Phillip's beer with his other hand. He took a quick gulp from the beer and moved away. He would not be there when Phillip freaked out, he decided.

He didn't have the heart to watch what would happen as soon as Phillip finished his beer.

* * *

Barnabas hugged himself. He should have foreseen this. Sabrina had been present when Julia had hurled those accusations at him, and now she was using that knowledge for her own purposes.

He ran his hand over the headstone. The years had weathered it. Twelve years ago...he traced the letters with his fingers.

"I will have to give in to her." her aid.

"You back here? What are you looking for anyway?"

Barnabas lifted his head towards Dave Woodard.

"I had to come..."

"It is an established fact that if you keep hitting your head on a wall, eventually you figure out that all you are getting is a headache. Is that what you want to know?"

"No." he shook his head. "It is Sabrina Jennings. She found out about...about this and is now using it to make me support Kennedy."

"And you don't want to.?'

"I like Kennedy. But he's not Presidential material. Not that I like Carter, mind you. If I thought that John Anderson could win..."

"Spare me the political analysis. Do you want to sell your vote?"

"I will have to, to protect Julia."

"No, you don't have to. Think a bit."

"Is there another way?"

"You know there is. If you were not so lost in your guilt feelings you'd see it."

* * *

Phillip laid down the empty glass on the counter. Still another number. Had to get up on that platform and play the sax one more time. They he could go home.

He blinked

They were all waiting for him. And they were laughing.

He blinked again. No, they were too busy drinking and chatting among themselves.

He made his way to the platform. The sax waited for him. It stared with malevolent eyes.

Eyes? No, the sax didn't have any eyes. It was just the stops...

He stood on the platform, trying to get a good grip on the sax. For some reason it felt slippery.

They all stared at him. Cold, cruel eyes, with mockery in them.

He put the mouthpiece in his mouth.

"Hello, Phillip." Tom Jennings said to him. "they want to know what I did to you. Why not show them?"

Phillip tried to control himself. Tom wasn't there. He was in Wyncliffe, in a straight jacket.

"You think so?" Tom laughed "I am here, and so are they. They want to see you as I did."

Phillip tried to scream, but the mouthpiece kept him from doing so. Instead, the sax curled itself around his neck, and stared into his eyes.

He tried pulling it away, but it tightened its hold, thrusting the sharp teeth of its mouth towards him.

"Come on, people" Tom shouted from the platform "don't you want to see how I used a bottle on him? I promise you, it is very spicy stuff."

"Yes!" the crowd roared "Show us!"

The sax hissed as it squeezed Phillip's throat, strangling him.

"I want a bottle! Any bottle will do!"

Hands pushed bottles forward. Of all colors and shapes, long necks pointing towards Phillip...

"No!" Phillip screamed, tearing the sax from his mouth

"Come on, Phillip! They all want to see it. Do you think they come here because you make beautiful music?"

* * *

Sabrina spied Barnabas in the cemetery. She figured he'd come here. He might now be free of guilt when it came to Maggie, but there were other sources of guilt...

She strode to where he was.

"An odd place for you to be, isn't it?" she asked.

"A good place to think."

"On the grave of the man you murdered?"

"On the grave of the man I killed when I wasn't responsible for my actions."

"You plan to plead temporary insanity? Too bad that Julia can't do the same. Have you thought what could happen to her?"

"You can't afford to make this public. Not with what Julia and I know about Drew Harrison. If my secret gets out, so does Maggie's"

Sabrina stepped back, white as a sheet.

"I called your bluff, didn't I?" there was sadness in his voice. "It very nearly worked."

"You still owe Maggie something."

"This is not the way to pay it back. I am sorry, Sabrina."

A right of light fell on them. They turned to George Brant's flashlight.

"I've been looking for you like crazy." George said. "Phillip freaked out."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Phillip twisted in the straightjacket, foam forming on his lips. He still saw Tom looking down on him and leering. Tom's hand was about to touch him. Desperately she snapped at it.

"What happened to him?" Barnabas pulled his hand away in surprise.

"What do you think happened?" Julia asked harshly. "getting up on that platform and playing was too much for him.

She knew the truth behind it, knew that Roxanne had ordered his beer laced with LSD. But she couldn't tell Barnabas that. And the frustration she felt made her even more merciless towards Barnabas.

"But he was doing all right..."

"All right according to you. You were the one who told him to put himself on display."

'It seemed to help him."

"Same as Eileen's knitting needles helped her? You blundered up badly once, but that's not enough for you. You still have to have those crazy ideas of yours. Well, now it is up to me to see if Phillip can be put together again. Amateur psychologists, psha!"

* * *

"Lou..." Willie turned on his bed, hoping that by calling her, she would be back with him.

But she wasn't. Nothing he said or did would bring her back. Not for a whole month.

But when the month was over...

When the month was over, what? He had missed her desperately when she had left him for the first time. Had tried practically everything to get her back. And now...now he had pushed her away.

Maybe a whole month wasn't enough. Not if he kept doing these things...

* * *

"Phillip freaked out?" Megan bit her lip, shaking.

"He is now in Wyncliffe" Joe said "Julia says it's Barnabas' fault for making him play in public."

"Very likely" Megan's eyes glinted dangerously Her fingers closer around a pencil, strangling it until it broke. She stood silent for a few seconds. "I am going to Wyncliffe." she said "I have to see him."

* * *

It was his fault. Phillip was screaming in a padded cell and it was his fault.

Barnabas put his hands to his temples. His head hurt. He had a mental link with Phillip and now was able to hear every one of his screams as if he was in the same cell with him. Worse, he heard the screams and knew what caused them.

He could shut them off, but was unwilling to do so. If he couldn't help Phillip, at least he could share...

He didn't even have the courage to go to Wyncliffe, as Megan had done. No, not even that was too much for him.

"You think that you are the only one?"

He lifted his head in surprise. He though he had been alone.

"You think that you are the only one?" Woodard repeated.

Barnabas shrugged listlessly. "If you want to make me feel lousy, you are wasting your time. I don't think you could make me feel worse than what I feel right now."

"No. It has nothing to do with that. I'll tell you a story. It was when I started practice. I was treating this little girl...she was very sick but she seemed to be responding to treatment. I became very attached to her. Then she took a turn for the worse and she died. It devastated me. It is always bad to lose a patient, and it is worse when you become emotionally involved... There was this guy at the hospital. He didn't like me, and I didn't like him, either. But when it happened he came to see me and told me what... hat I am going to tell you."

"Why?"

"Because you are in the business too. Because somebody should tell you this. I will not got into details as to why Julia isn't the done doing it. Too long and complicated. All right, here it is, in a nutshell: You are going to lose patients, again and again. And it is going to hurt. Not as badly as now, but it will hurt. It is the price you have to pay for all the times when you do not lose them, for all the times you feel good about yourself and your job. There isn't a doctor who hasn't gone through what you are going through now. And they survive it. They pull themselves together and keep going. You'll have to, if you want to keep at it. You might say it goes with the job"

"But I am not really..."

"Yes, you are. The moment you went to work for Julia you entered the profession. And as such, you have a right to some kind of guidance at this moment."

"It is this, then?"

"Yes. Call it professional courtesy. The guy I told you about, well, we didn't become friendlier afterwards. But I respected him more, and maybe that's enough. I am paying off that debt, now."

* * *

"You heard about Phillip Todd?" Vicky asked, playing nervously with the keys dangling from her belt.

"Yes. Flipped out in the middle of the concert. Julia's blaming Barnabas for it. He pushed Phillip to play in public."

Vicky shook her head, uncertain. "Still, there is something odd about it."

"Considering what Tom did to him, the only surprising him is that he did not do it sooner." Nicholas grimaced uncomfortably as he spoke. It was something he preferred not to think about too much himself.

"Maybe you are right." Vicky acknowledged. "I seem to forget how your species attaches such importance to matters of sex and bodily functions.."

Nicholas shivered at this reminded as to who really was inside Vicky's body.

* * *

Julia shifted uneasily under Megan's gaze.

"It still isn't a good idea for you to visit Phillip" she said.

"I accepted it last night because you said that it was late and he was heavily sedated. But I think I can see him today."

"It might disturb him."

"You think I can't control myself around him?"

Julia knew why Roxanne did not want Megan around Phillip. Nor anyone else, for that matter. Nobody must suspect that Phillip's breakdown had been triggered by LSD and in part maintained by other drugs. while his memory was being probed for the information that Roxanne wanted.

Yet, if Megan saw him in the shape he was, she would carry the talk to Collinpsort and make credible any further reports of catatonia...

Roxanne's eyes met her across the room. She read agreement in them.

"All right, Megan, you can see him." Julia said. "but only for a few seconds."

Phillip stared ahead, numbly, without seeming to recognize anyone when they came in.

"Phillip " Megan spoke softly "how are you doing?"

Phillip didn't respond

"Phillip"" Megan extended her hand.

And in the flicked of an eye, Phillip had jumped away, screaming and pushing against the wall, as far away from her as possible.

"Phillip..."

"That's enough" Julia said. "You have seen him."

Megan went out "Why?"" she asked.

"Ask Barnabas that."

Megan whimpered. The sound scared her. She hadn't whimpered in a long time.

"He hasn't said a word, has he?"

"Not yet. I am working on it."

"Will you tell me when he does?"

"Yes." Julia relented. " I will. I can't tell you how long it will take me, though. I will do my best."

Megan nodded and left.

Roxanne looked pleased. "That was smart, doctor. She will carry the tale to Vicky."

Julia was shocked. "How can you be so sure that Vicky is involved?"

"Has to be. How else would she do the time-hopping trick? And I didn't recover my memory and got called back into action until she came back."

"Called back?"

"Julia, you know that I work for certain...entities. As payment for saving my life when Randall was keeping me away from my coffin, I do certain things for them. I bet you were disappointed when you found out that the sunlight hadn't finished me off as you planned."

"I didn't..."

"Of course, that was Barnabas' idea." she smiled nastily. "I wonder how he likes hearing Phillip's screams in his mind."

"You did this to Phillip just to torment Barnabas?"

"I need to get get information out of Phillip. But if on the bargain I can make Barnabas scream, so much the better."

Julia gulped, scared at the raw hatred in Roxanne's eyes.

"The...entities who employ you, who or what are they?"

"Nothing you need to know."

* * *

Louella looked out of the window. Willie seemed so lost, so forlorn, as he stood at a distance, trying to catch a glimpse of her.

She wanted so much to rush to him, but could not. Barnabas had seen to that.

For a few seconds she hated Barnabas with all her being. He had no right to interfere this way! Willie had a right to be upset...

Then the hatred subsided. She knew better than that. Barnabas hadn't bent her will to his. He had given her knowledge. Cold, hard knowledge about herself and Willie. She that very easily the two of them could be locked into a pathological struggle that would end with herself dead and Willie in jail.

She wished she didn't have that knowledge. She wished that Barnabas had allowed her to deny it...

If she'd known what he'd been planning she might have refused to let him bite her...

In which case he would have done it by force. He cared too much about Willie and her not to. And he hadn't really asked, He had just pushed her back, his firmness not wholly hidden by his gentleness, had let her rest on the pillows, and had quickly gotten into her vein and her mind...

A kitten rubbed against the leg. Kitten? They were growing fast. Soon they would be taken to the vet for fixing...

She hugged the kitten, wishing it was Willie instead.

* * *

"How's she? Joe asked Tammy.

"The same." Tammy shook her head sadly.

"She can't stay like this forever." Joe protested. "How many days since she went to Wyncliffe? After all, Barnabas bounced back.

"It is harder for her. she also lost Angelique and Chris."

"We have to do something. She can't stay that way?'

"What do you suggest?"

"I don't know..." Joe snapped his fingers. "she always said that there was something fishy about the Leviathan case. The she thinks it did not end. Maybe we could get her interested in that."

"Leviathan? What do you now about it?"

"Not much, but Barnabas does."


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

"How would you like to have a highway built in the middle of the living room? Barnabas asked Iris.

"Why? Who is offering?"

"Carter, He called me."

"You mean, the President?"

"It certainly wasn't Brother Billy." he shook his head in amazement. "He must think that I am some kind of a hick, that I get so impressed by having the President know my name that I am going to be bowled over and that I will go take the air off the tires of the Kennedy campaign cars."

"Are you sure you still want to back him?" Iris said, smiling. "Maybe you should reconsider and leave the Democratic Party."

"Not yet."

"Seriously, if you have reached the point when you get. psychosomatic diseases thinking about the Democratic candidates then it is time to vote Republican."

"Never"

Before Iris could answer, Louella introduced Tammy to them.

"I didn't realize you were busy."

"Never mind." Iris rose from her seat "I was here too long, myself, and if you hadn't shown up we'd be involved in very long and very boring argument. Good luck to you, kid."

Barnabas saw Iris go. He wished he knew where he was in his relationship with her. They had already gone to bed a couple of times, but she seemed reluctant to go further.

Maybe she was making sure the didn't take her for granted. Maybe it was the best she could do.

"I am sorry." Tammy said.

"Don't be. It has nothing to do with you."

"What were you arguing about?"

"Politics, what else?"

"I am for Jerry Brown, myself."

Barnabas looked heavenward. Not another one of those."

"But I am not coming for that. It has to do with Megan. She's not been herself lately, and Joe and I thought that if she was in a case that was really interesting, she might snap out of it."

"And you want me to give one to you? I am sorry, but I have no mysteries to solve. Not the kind she deals with, I mean."

"You can tell me about the Leviathan."

"Why?"

"If she thought that they might be coming back, that might be what she needs to get going again."

Barnabas told her succinctly of the events in 1970, how much he had learned about them, and how much he had guessed.

"So they are the ones responsible for your... condition. And hers, too."

"In her case, indirectly. But yes, it was them."

"If she could blame Phillip's condition on them, it might make her want to fight."

"I sure hope so."

"I can't bear to look at her now, so downcast, like... like a corpse the undertaker has forgotten to pick up. And she was so patient with me. I was a big pain in the neck when I got here."

"That's an expression you don't use in this town." Barnabas said facetiously.

"I mean... No, I am not doing it again... I was rather rotten to you, wasn't I?

"You more than made up for it when you stopped Kira Petofi.

"And you helped me, too with Buffy..."

"You helped me too, even if you don't know how much.

"The one thing I couldn't forgive you was the fact that your family was in the slave trade."

Barnabas sighed at that, knowing that he could not lie and pretend that he had never been part of it. He knew that some of it was still going on, even if he kept away from those transactions...And on one occasion, that trip to Virginia...

It was no use to think of the past. It could not be changed.

"Tammy? Can I ask you to do a thing for me?"

"Yes?"

"When you came here, you asked me to do something to you. To show how...how a certain thing was done."

"I was hateful then."

"I got mad and I purposely made it painful for you. Usually it is more pleasant than that."

"So Megan told me."

"Would you mind if I show you now how it is done right?"

Tammy smiled and nodded.

She let him guide her to the couch and make her lie down. He then knelt by her side, pushed her head back and bent over her throat.

Her head upside down, Tammy saw Louella watch with widened eyes.

* * *

Willie looked wistfully at the liquor store. It would take him only a couple of bucks and he would find easy comfort to get him through the night.

And tomorrow, the hangover in the drunk tank... he reminded himself.

Throwing that kind of tantrum would not help him. Yet it was so tempting...

But he would not have Barnabas' shoulder to cry on afterwards. He would not have Louella.

How could he have hit her? How could he have gotten so mad at her? When she had left him for Quentin it was as if a piece of him had been cut off. But now he had chased her away.

Because they didn't pay enough attention to him.

"Aren't you too old for sibling rivalry?"

Barnabas and him... They had been together for so long. Maybe too long...

And Lou... would she leave him for good? She could.

So he was alone. Alone in his house. Alone in his bed, without even being able to pick up the phone and tell Barnabas how tough it was.

Barnabas had faith in him. He knew that he would come through.

He wished he had as much faith in himself as Barnabas had. He wasn't much. An ex-con. A high school dropout, a punk, a cheap hoodlum. If he hadn't found that locked coffin in 1967, where would he be? In jail? Skid row? Dead in some alley?

He had never amounted to much. After a while he didn't even try. He just blamed everyone else for his failures and tried to hustle what he could.

He looked at the liquor store. That's how it started. Holding up a liquor store. Got two hundred bucks, a wild ride and a jail sentence.

He could do it again. Then Barnabas would have to come take care of him.

"Of course." he laughed mirthlessly "I'd have to go to jail, too."

And he was too old to find anything attractive about being gang-raped in the shower room.

"Willie Loomis" he told himself 'You have a big problem, and you better straighten up before it's too late.

And if he survived this month he'd have a better chance of making it.

* * *

"Here" Sebastian locked the iron collar around Angelique's neck "how does it feel?"

Angelique scowled with disgust. "Now Roxanne decided to keep me on a leash, like a dog?"

"No. It was my idea." Sebastian admitted. But the fact that the collar had been used in a slave ship had made it attractive to Roxanne.

"And why did you do it?"

"It was the only way I could remove your manacles."

"These?" Angelique lifted her hands.

"Yes. You've been trying to get out of them and I understand how uncomfortable they are. This way you'll be both comfortable and safe enough for Roxanne.

Yes. Safe for Roxanne. As long as there was cold iron next to her skin, she was powerless.

But at least her hands were free. and with time, she could convince Sebastian of other things.

* * *

"Representative Evans called today." Louella said to him as soon as he came from the room behind the library.

"What did she say? That she accepted money from Arabs and how she's worried sick that they might be from the FBI?"

"No." Louella laughed, but without conviction. "she says it has to do with Kennedy."

"It figures. Sabrina failed, so she's going to try herself."

He realized what Maggie had been doing with him all these years. He felt more sadness than anger. It she had manipulated him through guilt, it was because he had allowed her to do it.

He looked at Louella. There was a certain sadness in her, a longing...

"You miss Willie, don't you?"

She nodded. "We had good times, he and I."

"You will have them again."

"I wonder if we have a right to do this."

"You realize what could happen if we didn't"

"Yes." she nodded, "Still"

"Still, it is hard. I miss him too. I never had kids. I'll never have now. But if I could choose a son for myself, I couldn't choose better than Willie. That's how much I miss him. But we have to do this."

Louella nodded, but still was far from convinced. For than matter, neither was he.

He dialed Maggie's office. He understood that these days she was working late.

"Representative Evans' office" the girl at the other end answered.

"Tell Representative Evans that sheik Abdul Hassan has about fifty thousand dollars..."

"Who is this?"

"I told you, Sheik Abdul Hassan..."

"Barnabas!: Maggie said :"It is you!"

"Yes, it is me."

"It is all right" Maggie said to the receptionist "It is a friend of mine with a twisted sense of humor."

When the other extension clicked shut, Maggie turned to Barnabas.

"Never, never make jokes about that!"

"Why? You accepted gifts from them?"

"No. They didn't approach me. Anyway, it is entrapment what the FBI did. Maybe not technically, but it is entrapment all the same. And it is not funny."

"All right. I am returning your phone call this morning."

"You know what I want, of course?"

"Support Kennedy."

"You know that you owe me still."

So it had come out into the open. Barnabas took, a deep breath because he did not like what he would have to say.

"I owe you something, Maggie. But I will not pay it off that way. I will not allow you to manipulate me this way again."

"What do you mean, manipulate? You are the one who manipulated me."

"Maggie, don't. If you have nightmares and need me to hold your hand, and help them go away, I will do that. If you are angry with me, and want to use me for a punching bag, I will go along with it. If you want me to give you something, I will give it to you, if it is mine to give. But I cannot give you my vote, because my vote is not a possession but a trust. It does not belong to me, but to the country. I am supposed to use it wisely, and using it to pay off a private debt, which is what you and I have, is as much embezzlement as dipping in the public till. I cannot do it, and you should not even ask it of me."

"Do you know how it felt to go mad in that cell? Alone, in the dark, trying to find a way out.?"

"Don't Maggie." Barnabas said sadly " Don't do this."

He hung up the phone. It hurt to realize what their relationship had been for the past years. It hurt having to put a stop to it this way.

"Goodbye, Maggie" he said aloud. "I never really knew you."


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Megan shook her head in amazement. How could she not have suspected it? It was all there, all the odd thing that had been happening lately. Vicky returned as mysteriously as she had vanished. Returned as mysteriously as Phillip had been. Roger being unusually quiet. Derek keeping out of trouble, according to George Brant, while Delia acted as if scared of him. Angelique gone. The werewolves locked away...

And if there was one thing that the Leviathans feared, it was werewolves.

And Phillip's memory. Whatever it was, it had to do with a bottle, and very conveniently that memory had been blocked by his rape by Tom Jennings.

Why hadn't she seen it? Because it involved Phillip and it was painful to her to think about him?

Joe looked at Tammy. "Well, it seems to have worked. She's herself again."

Tammy bit her lip "Do you suppose...?"

"That it might be for real?"

Joe shook his head, but without conviction..

"When you think of all that has been happening lately" Tammy insisted "it makes kind of sense."

"Tammy. Joe" Megan called them.

They went to her.

"I have a bad feeling that we are going to be in danger" Megan said. "And we'd better be on our guard."

"Do we carry hardware?" Joe asked.

"Yes. But first open your collars. I want to know at all times where you are and what you are doing. I already lost Angelique and Chris. I don't want to lose you."

* * *

Carolyn smiled, looking up from the test results.

"It's positive" she announced triumph ally to Vicky "That means that I am pregnant!"

"Here it says that you should double-check with a doctor - "Vicky said cautiously.

"I am pregnant. I know it. I wonder what it will be, boy or girl? Well, if it is a girl, I can always find a poor cousin to marry her, so as to carry the family name. But I believe it will be a boy.

Carolyn felt happy. So happy that she decided to increase Quentin's allowance. After all, he was being very cooperative about the whole business..

"I only regret that it cannot be Jeb's child." Carolyn said wistfully.

Vicky smiled inwardly at this. Carolyn was wrong about that.

"Of course, you never knew him.

"I feel as if I did."

* * *

Willie stared ahead. it was lonely in his shop. If he closed his eyes he could imagine Louella in the back, taking inventory. He could almost see Barnabas coming through the door.

They would come back. They promised they would. That is, if he was a good boy.

But that was what they were supposed to cure him off, he realized. Was punishing him like a child the best way to stop him from throwing tantrums like a child?

Barnabas had goofed on that one. He would never truly learn responsibility that way. he shouldn't hit Louella because it was wrong, not because Barnabas would not talk to him if he did it.

* * *

"Something is bothering you." Barnabas said, quietly.

Louella shook her head "It is nothing." she lied "I just miss Willie."

"I know you do." Barnabas sat on the bed, watching how Louella brushed her hair. But it is not that long a wait. There is more to it that that, though.."

"Yes." Louella admitted "It is something I saw."

"What was it?"

She shook her head. "No, I can't tell you of it. It really shouldn't bother me. Not after all the trouble you have gone through for me."

"It isn't much trouble. And you have been a big help now that Phillip is gone. It is something you saw, you said. About me?"

Louella nodded.

Something you saw me do that bothered you." he grimaced. "There are sides of me that I find hard to live with."

"But your are such a nice person. I have no right to say it."

"Why not tell me about it, and then we decide if you have crossed a line or not."

Louella swallowed. "It was when Miss Innes was here...

"Something about her bothers you?"

"It isn't her... I saw when you made her like down on the couch and bent over her..."

Barnabas sighed. "That's why I don't like being watched when I do it."

"It looked like you two were making love."

"We were not. But it might look that way."

"And then I remember how it feels when you do it to me."

Barnabas sighed, deeply this time. "Yes, there is a certain erotic element in it. I learned not to pay attention to it, in order to keep my sanity. you see, I have to be promiscuous in my feeding for safety reasons, while sexually I tend towards monogamy, so I try to keep the two separate."

But sometimes I get these feelings about you. I begin fantasizing...

"About you and me?"

'Yes, but I love Willie."

"There is nothing wrong with fantasies, as long as you know that they are. You would not run away with me, would you?"

"No, I would not." she admitted.

"Do you know how many times I decided that I would make a better President than many of the turkeys running for the office? But you don't see me kissing babies and making speeches any time I can corral a crowd."

Louella nodded.

Later, when she had gone to sleep, and he had come down to deal with some paperwork that Davenport had given him, he found Megan standing in front of the fireplace.

"Hello, Barnabas" she said.

"There is no change in Phillip" he said "I am sorry.".

He could not lie to her. He knew the truth about Phillip's condition too well. Even if he had now shut off the link with Phillip's mind, he still somehow knew of what he was going through.

"Julia's optimistic about him. Thinks that with rest he will get better."

"I shouldn't have pushed him to play in public."

Inwardly Megan agreed. But she refrained from saying so. She had come here for information, not argument.

"It wasn't your fault. It was Tom's. Phillip and Angelique both... I can't get her out of my mind. And the fact that I never suspected that there was something wrong with Chris. I am not much of a detective these days. It wouldn't surprise me if Tammy stole the agency from me. And the way I feel about it, I don't think that I really care."

Barnabas sighed. Xavier's paperwork would have to wait. He had Megan's depression to worry about..

"You want a drink?" Alcohol always helped...

"Gin will do, if you have any... Somehow it helps..."

He wondered, as she drank it, what would happen if it helped too much... What if Megan became an alcoholic? From Roxanne, they knew that a vampire could become drug addicted...

"Something is eating you up." he said to her.

"Tom Jennings. Joe said the other day that he was justified in going after Angelique because she had turned him into a vampire."

Barnabas shook his head. "Joe does not know the whole ugly truth. From what Amy told me, he was already doing what he did to Sandy. There was at least one girl he killed before he even met Angelique. If she hadn't had fangs when he met her, he might have done the same thing to her he... he did now... I could sense his madness when I met him... But I did not know him from before. I thought he was the way he was because of the curse..."

"Well, you could have taken your cue from Angelique. Becoming a vampire did not improve her disposition, but did not spoil it either."

"That's why I tried to have you killed by Willie." he confessed. "I was afraid you'd turn out to be like Tom."

"Well," she shrugged " If the only other vampire I had ever met had been someone like that, I too would have a very low opinion of the whole breed. But you were a rather well meaning person, though awfully thickheaded."

"And then there was Rachel. When you went after Roger, I saw him as I had seen Rachel.."

"I only wanted Roger's money. You should have figured out that I chose for my victims rich men. But what was Rachel story? You never spoke of her."

"I didn't realize it then, but Dirk was mad... it wasn't his fault that Laura used him as she did... and that she had drained him to the point that an attack which left most unharmed would kill him..."

Slowly he told her of the 1897 events, Laura, Quentin, Jenny, Rachel, Beth...

"But you couldn't keep the werewolf curse from coming down to Chris and Tom."

"I came very close. If Carl hadn't found out about me and told Trask about me, I'd have removed the curse from Quentin. As it was, I lost time, and then Petofi got there. If it hadn't been for Carl finding out..."

"Couldn't you have handled Carl?"

"I strangled him!"

"But that was stupid!" Megan blurted out. "If he had told anybody, that was confirmation. If he hadn't, it was a good reason for people to ask questions and poke about in corners. You should have put him under your influence, found out who had he told, if he did, and make him deny everything."

"Instead, I ended at Quentin's mercy..." Barnabas sighed. "I still can't understand how it came about. He was a notorious practical joker. Once I got him under control it could have been easy to make him pretend it was another practical joke. They would have believed it."

"So how come?"

"I don't know." Barnabas admitted. "I was ready to bite him. And suddenly I found my hands around his neck. And his neck was broken."

Megan tensed up. It fitted somehow with what she was putting together. She wondered if she could go on making Barnabas talk without his being aware that she was getting information out of him.

"And then I told Edward that I would never harm him or his family. ...After I had killed his brother... I don't blame him for not believing a word I said. I wasn't any better than Dirk to him..."

"You probably saw both Dirk and Tom Jennings in Roxanne's face."

"When I saw Julia lying there... she looked so much like Rachel after Judith had shot her... I was so scared. So I told Randall how he could kill his sister..."

"I never heard the whole story. About what happened in 1840. Do you mind telling me about it?"


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Time seemed to pass quickly. It had been a while he had left Wyncliffe for Collinsport, yet it seemed yesterday. Julia had granted him some days extra out of consideration that Xavier wanted certain things done at his other job.

He suspected that he was going to lose this job soon. Xavier was looking for an excuse to fire him. Too many disagreements lately between the two of them.

Well, he could go to work for Julia full time, then. And then he could get another stab at Phillip. He had an idea of what could be done with him, and if Julia listened to him, it might work.

Iris and him were together again. It was a more difficult relationship now, but it was working. Still...

Tonight would be the first night of the full moon. He had promised Sandy he'd be there when she went into the cage.

He stepped on the accelerator He was tired of watching the road. He wanted to be in Wyncliffe, talking with Julia...

* * *

"Sebastian" Angelique said "tell me if I am wrong."

Sebastian nodded.

"Let's skip the part about what a rotten person I am and how I hurt Roxanne. The fact is that she will need all the help she can get, and that she refuses to let me help her. I can't even convince her to get in contact with Megan. She might be right about her. I don't believe it. If the Leviathan had taken over her, I would have noticed it. And you can't keep Megan out. She has a way of asking questions and finding out things. If Roxanne does not contact Megan, Megan will probably contact her at gunpoint."

"Makes senses to me. After all, when she brought you here, she said that she needed you. But all I have seen her do is torment you."

"We have tried talking to her. How many times have we said the same things over and over?"

"Too many."

"So we have to do something else. Force her hand."

"And how do we do that?"

"Remove my collar. Let me place a call to Megan, and then call Roxanne and have it out with her."

Sebastian shook his head. "It seems too drastic."

"Nothing else will work. She will not face me unless I am dealing from strength. If you are worried about yourself, I can arrange an alibi for you."

Sebastian sighed. "All right, you win. I will go for pliers."

* * *

Sandy was pacing then floor, hugging herself.

"It isn't going to be so terrible." David tried to reassure her. "I have been doing it for about a year and it hasn't hurt me any."

Sandy didn't answer. Chained and locked in a cage. Like an animal... Like the animal she would become tonight...

"Don't let it distress you." David insisted. "It isn't fun, but it isn't the end of the world, either. If you are careful as to how you put the chains, you won't even have a cramp when you wake up."

At that point Barnabas came in.

"Didn't I tell you he'd be here on time?" David said, then to Barnabas. "She kept saying that she would not go downstairs until you were with her."

"Come Sandy," he said to her. "That is a bit too much. Suppose I hadn't make it on time. would you have gone on the rampage?"

"I..." Sandy sobbed. "I don't want to go downstairs."

"You have to. We all have to do things we do not like. The alternative is worse."

Between him and David they got her to come down. She didn't resist them as they guided her.

They found the cages, side by side, with cots and chains inside.

"This one is mine." David said "you take her to the next one. Do you want help, or can I go chain myself?"

"I can handle her."

Sandy's legs faltered as they went into the cage. Barnabas pretended not to notice it."

He made her sit on the cot. She was shaking, but still holding herself erect.

"Give me your hands." he kissed her brow. "I promise that I won't hurt you."

She sobbed once more and extended her hands.

* * *

"Well, Tammy, what have you found in the records about the people I told you about?"

"Quentin Collins was lost at sea. Samantha remarried Gerard and moved away from Collinwood. Daniel settled a sizeable amount of money on her, on condition she never return. Ben Stokes died of tuberculosis in 1839. Gabriel Collins, of pneumonia in 1834. Nothing was to keep Edith from becoming the matriarch of Collinwood after Daniel's death."

"What about Tad Collins?"

"Killed in the Civil War, much to Edith's relief. No children."

"Roxanne Drew?"

"Married Lamar Trask. Was Gregory Trask's mother. Died in childbirth."

"So what happens to that reality that Barnabas and Julia visited?" Megan wondered. "Where not only there were trials for witchcraft in 1840, but also sentences of death were executed by beheading?"

"Another Parallel Time?" Joe offered.

"Yes. Reached by a but in Quentin's staircase. That makes sense. That staircase was an experimental model, and bound to have bugs."

"But what about our Angelique being there? What about Julia's headstone?" Tammy offered.

"Our Angelique might have been transported through a glitch in one of her incantations. She was trying some new ones then... And that might explain how, after being killed by Trask, she came back. The incantarion wore off, and she was back in 1968, remembering only taht Barnabas had declared his love, and finding out that he hated her again... Thus starting all the 1968 trouble."

"And Julia's headstone." Tammy insisted.

"A prop. Meant for Barnabas and Julia not to notice the truth."

"You think the Leviathan...?"

"They would not endanger Carolyn. But what about another time hopping race? One opposed to them? One that would, in extreme cases, destroy a whole family to deny the Leviathan one particular member? One that would make sure that there were werewolves ready if the Leviathan showed up again? They methods are brutal, and have little regard for human life. But they are effective."

"Don't forget that Chris is in Wyncliffe out of the way."

"I wonder if he is really out of it... And David and Sandy are in Wyncliffe too..."

The phone rang.

"Angelique! You are alive!"

* * *

So Valerie wanted to grovel a little more. Roxanne's lips curved into a cruel smile. Well, let her. She'd love to see it."

"Well, Sebastian, where's the bitch?" she asked, opening the door.

"I am here." Angelique said coldly "and I am not a bitch."

She got up from her seat, letting Roxanne see her bare throat.

"What did you do with Sebastian?"

"He's sleeping. I haven't harmed him."

"If you have..."

"The time for threats is past, Roxanne. Sit down and listen."

Roxanne pulled up her lips.

"Don't try that, either." Angelique shook her head. "It will not work."

Reluctantly, Roxanne sat down.

"You are fighting the Leviathan. I can help you. I want to help you."

"So you said before."

"But this time I am not begging. I don't have to stay here nor to make deals with you. I can go out and see Megan. But I will not do it. I will cooperate with you."

Roxanne nodded.

"You cannot hurt me anymore, but I can hurt you. I will not do that. I will help you. But I want to be on it. I want to participate in the decisions."

Roxanne stared at her. "Is Sebastian all right?"

"Yes. He should be waking up in a couple of hours."

"If he's all right, I will accept your conditions. But if he's not.." her eyes glinted dangerously.

"He is all right."


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Roxanne scowled. Letting Angelique in on her decisions was not something she enjoyed. In fact, she loathed it. But she had been outmaneuvered, and had to accept that.

"We have to bring Megan in."

"No. not her. You do not know her as well as I do. She'll invite herself before we know it. Too many suspicious things going around her."

Roxanne shook her head. "I told you why I don't want her. They may have her under her control, for all we know."

"The more the reason before we get to her before she puts two and two together. But I don't think that they control her. Not after the way they sent Phillip to Wyncliffe"

"I sent Phillip to Wyncliffe so that I can interrogate him."

Angelique paled. "Better not let Megan find out. And again, better if she does not come here gun in hand, asking for explanations."

"So what do you propose?"

"She knows that I am still alive. You could approach her with a message from me. I will give you this potion. It acts as sodium pentothal on a vampire. Will put her under and you can interrogate her. Then we'll know where she stands, and whether or not se will help us."

"Suppose she's one of them. What will you do?"

"I can incapacitate her until this is over. But there will be no need. She is no Leviathan."

* * *

"This is going to be the last night, Sandy." Barnabas said.

"I am glad that it is over."

"You'll have to come back next month." he reminded her.

"I know" she grimaced. "But not tomorrow."

"Yes. That should be enough for now." he admitted. "Do you know how to unlock yourself when you wake up?"

"No, I have David there..."

"You must learn to rely on yourself. It is very important."

"I promise that by the next full moon I will have learned it. Now, would you mind taking care of me? Just for tonight?"

He could not let her become dependent on him. Yet she still needed him. Well, the next full moon would be different.

"All right." he said. "but if I keep doing this often, David will get jealous."

As they went down, they found Kenneth, brandishing a pen and pad.

"Are you going to observe her?" Barnabas said with disapproval.

"I have to."

"This is not a freak show! She has some right to privacy in this!"

"I am here as a doctor. Julia thought I might come up with some ideas."

Sandy moved forward. "If you watch me, will you be able to come up with a cure?"

"I cannot promise you anything. But I will be working on it."

"Then you can watch."

Barnabas grumbled but did not complain further. Kenneth had been badgering Julia for a long time for the chance to observe a werewolf transformation and had finally gotten his way.

He chained Sandy and made her like down on the cot. "Are you comfortable?"

"Yes." she smiled at him. "Will you wtay with me for a while?"

* * *

In her office, Julia watched how Roxanne helped the orderly lay Tom Jennings to the couch and strap him down. Tom wasn't sedated this time. A straightjacket kept him helpless and a silver pentagram handing from his neck prevented his transformation into a wolf.

"You can go now." Roxanne said to the orderly.

He nodded, and the look in his eyes told Julia that Roxanne had been at his throat recently.

Tom was gagged and the electrodes were affixed to his body.

"Well, Tom." Julia said wearily "you know what comes next. Why not make it easy on yourself and get out of that body?"

Tom made strangled sounds and glared defiantly.

Julia threw the switch.

* * *

Sandy's body arched as the convulsions came upon her. In the next cage, David was sprouting hair. Barnabas slowly stepped back. She did not need him there anymore, as she no longer was aware of her surroundings...

Coming out of the cage, he saw Kenneth scribbling furiously. His face darkened... Kenneth should not be here at all. He had no right to this.

Determined to make an issue of it, he raced up the stairs to tell Julia exactly how he felt.

Sandy was not a freak. Neither was David. They were human beings and they had dignity.

He opened Julia's office door and stepped in, just in time to see Tom Jennings twisting in pain against the restraining straps.

* * *

"Louella, please come back..."

He missed her so much. How could she have left him like that?

Willie steadied himself. he couldn't go on like this. He could not give in to self-pity.

Fact, he had beaten her. Fact, he had accused her of something he knew wasn't true. Fact, he would hit her again if he could get away with it.

He loved her. But did he love her enough?"

Barnabas had been right. He was only a small child throwing tantrums. Of course, Barnabas had treated him like a child by cutting him off for a whole month. But that was not Barnabas' fault.

If he wanted to be treated like an adult, he had to behave like an adult.

And what does an adult do? An adult faces up to the fact that he has a problem and does something about it. An adult goes to a psychiatrist on his own, without waiting for someone to tell him to do it.

* * *

"What are you doing?" Barnabas screamed.

Roxanne had disappeared the moment the door opened. Now she hovered as a tiny bat in a corner, watching with curiosity what kind of trouble Barnabas was going to make for them.

"You can't do this, Julia." Barnabas said heatedly, tearing at the wires.

'How dare you?" Julia shouted at him. "This doesn't concern you!"

"It does. Turn off the current. Turn it off!"

Julia crossed her arms. "I will not do such thing. I have to get Tom's spirit out of that body, and this is the best way."

Barnabas pushed her to a side and turned the current off.

Tom sighed through his gag and relaxed.

"Who are you to tell me what treatment to give my patients?"

"Where did you learn this anyway? Did you study with the Gestapo?"

'You know where I went to school and with whom."

The barb stung Barnabas, yet he insisted. "You can't do this, Julia. It isn't right."

"What do you suggest I do, instead? Do you know of a better way to exorcize Tom?"

"I don't know" Barnabas admitted.

"If you don't,. then keep your mouth shut."

"It is wrong, what you are doing."

"How many times do I have to tell you that if you want to hang up a shingle, to get a degree first.?"

Before Barnabas could answer Kenneth's head appeared through the door. "What's the meaning of this racket?" he asked.

"I thought you were downstairs." Julia said.

"I was . One of the nurses called me."

"Well, since you are here, try to teach this... this dumbbell not to interfered between a doctor and a patient."

Barnabas looked at him "Do you know what she's doing?"

"Why not explain it to me outside?"

"I can't" he looked distrustfully at Julia "she will start again."

"Come with me" Kenneth took his arm. "Explain the whole thing to me. If you are right, I'll back you up against her."

"Against another doctor?"

"If needs be."

Kenneth led Barnabas outside. And no sooner had the door closed behind them that Roxanne appeared in front of Julia.

"I hope that Kenneth keeps him away."

"Were you the nurse who called him?"

"Yes. I figured that he would be the only one who would dare to interrupt you when your were having a shouting match with Barnabas. I don't think he paid much attention to me. I said that I was a nurse, and that was all."

'You didn't bite him by any chance?" Julia looked at her skeptically.

"I don't do it if I can avoid it. As an ex-addict, biting someone I am not sell acquainted with is like Russian Roulette. Before I know, I am hooked again."

"You did bite the orderly."

"After I checked that he was clean."

"Kenneth isn't an addict."

"He's a doctor. That's a high risk group when it comes to drug addiction."

"I am a doctor too. Weren't you afraid to bite me?"

"I told you. I don't bite unless it is strictly necessary."

* * *

"It seems the right idea." Kenneth said quietly "After all, Tom clings to that body because it is comfortable for him there. Make it uncomfortable enough, and he'll leave."

"Do you know where she puts the wires?"

"Yes. Highly effective."

"We are talking about torture, pure and simple! And you just shake your head and say that it might work!"

"Well, I am a professional..."

"Your wife has set up a private torture chamber in her office.!"

"It isn't the same thing. She is doing to somebody who is sick and who will benefit from it."

"Is that all the difference?"

"Sure, Do you know what I do in the operating table? If those were healthy bodies it would be called mutilation. But it is not, even if I have to amputate whole limbs sometimes. If you saw me, you'd be just as revolted as you are by Julia, and you'd be equally wrong to interfere."

"Doctors!" Barnabas muttered.

"Do you know what your problem is?"

"What is it, according to you?"

"You keep reminding us that patients are human beings and that they have to be treated with dignity. Which is fine. But then you forget that they are patients and have to be treated."

"I don't forget it."

"Why did you resent me watching David and Sandy?"

"They need privacy. Specially Sandy. She's still very shaken by what happened to her.

"But how can a cure be found if they never get examined? How can anyone figure out a treatment when we don't even know what's wrong with their bodies?"

"Were you trying to find a treatment of just satisfying your curiosity?"

"The two are one and the same. We can't go around seeking a specific answer and expect to find it. We look at anything interesting and maybe we can use it. Fleming did not set out to discover penicillin. He just got curious about a strange fungus growing in his cultures, that's all. Maybe if I can examine Sandy to my satisfaction I might find a way to cure her."

"There is no guarantee of that, of course."

"No. There isn't. But it's a start. Do you remember when Julia started treating you?"

Barnabas grimaced at that. "I wasn't a very cooperative patient.,"

"Her patients usually aren't. But what I mean is, did she give you a complete physical?"

"Not immediately, but she did."

"Made you strip and looked all over?"

"Yes."

"And you understood why she had to do it, and you cooperated."

"Yes."

"And you think that Sandy's too stupid to do the same?


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

It was lonely at the office with everybody gone. But then, it was always lonely this hour of the night. The time for her to finish her paperwork, not to succumb to sentimentality. She was not Barnabas.

Angelique was alive. How she did not know. But it had been her voice. Said she could not come, but someone would meet her to explain...

Angelique was alive... after so many days of believing her dead... she was alive.

There was a rustle behind her.

"Miss Graham" said a voice behind her. "Angelique sends me."

Megan turned in surprise. Roxanne Drew was there...

"How is she? Why didn't she contact me sooner? How do you know you speak for her?... " the questions came rapidly.

"She sends this to you." Roxanne extended the vial towards Megan. And as Megan was to touch it, she upended quickly so that it fell over Megan's hand.

Roxanne tired up quickly the rubber gloves she wore. She did not want to get any of it on her own skin.

Megan had collapsed on the floor. She would now answer questions.

* * *

Julia studied Willie. He looked downcast, true. But there was something else, too. Determination, self assurance...

"You want me to treat you?"

"Yes. I want to know why... why I did that to Louella. I want to be sure I won't do it again.

"I thought that Barnabas was taking care of it."

"It is not enough. Yes, he found what the problem was. But I don't think that he got the treatment right. How can he teach me how to be an adult if he treats me like a child?"

Julia nodded. Willie was right. It wasn't such a good idea, this silent treatment.

"Maybe we should tell him that you made a change in plans."

"No." Willie shook his head. "not until the month is over."

"Why? as you said, it made no sense."

"I don't want to use it as an excuse... I want to know that I can go the distance."

Julia nodded again. She suspected that Barnabas was a better psychologists that Willie gave him credit for.

"It is bad enough that I am doing this behind his back..." Willie added.

"Nonsense, Willie. There is nothing wrong with asking for a second opinion."

* * *

When Megan opened her eyes, Angelique was bending over her.

"Are you all right?" Angelique asked.

"Of course, she is all right." Roxanne shot form Tammy's desk. "You have me the vial, you knew it would not hurt her." she turned to Megan. "Sorry about the treatment, but I wanted to make sure you were not working for the Leviathan."

"No. they do not control me." Megan said, looking at Roxanne with curiosity. "But there are people in town they control"

"You know they are back?"

"I have done my own investigating. Any way, I always knew that it hadn't ended in 1970. They had assembled a motley crew that could barely screw in a light bulb. Nicholas a loser, trying to recoup his fortunes. Bruno, a sadist, too intent in getting his jollies to pay attention to anything else. Sky, whose main qualifications was knowing how to keep the boss happy. And Barnabas who was guaranteed to flip to the other side on a moment's notice. It was programmed for failure."

"They never expected Jab to succeed." she continued "he was only a decoy. Eventually the right thing would come out."

"Well, it has." Roxanne said "Then they used Barnabas to bring in the runt of the litter and let if all self-destruct. Now it is going to be the real thing."

"Vicky is in it." Megan said. "probably Nicholas too. He's a loser, but properly controlled has its uses. Probably everyone living in Collinwood has fallen under their spell. And Derek, who spends too much time there, spying on them..."

Roxanne lifted her eyebrows. "You seem to know a lot about it."

"As I said, I do my own investigating."

Angelique stifled a laugh at Roxanne's shock. Just as she had warned. If Roxanne hadn't contacted Megan, Megan would have come pounding at the door, gun in hand.

"Then there is Phillip" Megan said "that breakdown of his came too opportunely. From what Barnabas told me, he had begun to remember what happened to him after he fell off Widow's Hill."

Roxanne smiled. "You were a suspect because you never got curious about that."

Megan acknowledged it. "Damned unprofessional of me. But then, it was a highly emotional issue for me. How would you react if the same thing happened to Sebastian?"

Roxanne nodded. "Yes. I see your point." she smiled.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

"Well, " Barnabas put his arms around Iris' shoulders "Caucus' over and we can go back to normality."

"It is going to be strange." Iris mused "not to have a Kennedy volunteer underfoot every time you go out."

"We can be thankful that Presidential elections happen every four years." he kissed her face lightly and she responded running her fingers through his hair.

"You got nice ears." she said.

"I am not perfect, but parts of me are excellent." he looked at her. "are you sure you want this?"

"You don't?"

"You know that I do. I missed you a lot."

"You are trying to push away again." she warned him. "Don't".

"It is hard." he acknowledged. "Part of me wants you, and part of me says that I should give you up for your own good."

"Just let me worry about my own good, OK?"

"OK." He wished that he could be more sure of it. But he wasn't. There would be more times like this. Maybe he would know the answer then... There was no guarantee. He did not know what would happen between him and Iris, no idea of how it would end.

* * *

The Blue Whale was animated, with everybody listening to the returns on the radio.

"Carter did not beat Kennedy by enough votes." the bartender said.

"What you mean not enough? This is New England." Joe Haskell protested "If Kennedy can't win here, he can't win period."

"Jerry Brown did rather well." Frank commented.

"What do you mean rather well? He didn't get started, If that's what rather well means, doing badly must be getting arrested for accepted money from an FBI agent dressed as an Arab."

"This is Sheik Abdul Hassan" Joe pulled a tablecloth over his head "and I'll give you a million dollars if you do me a few favors."

"You look like Yassir Arafat" someone shouted from the back.

"Thank you, ayatollah." Joe salaamed towards him.

"You called me an ayatollah?"

"If the beard fits, wear it."

"Say Joe" Big Bill asked. "they are saying now that it was entrapment. ABSCAM, I mean."

"You want my professional opinion? Well, it was dangerously close to it. Megan would not pull something like that. But they can afford good lawyers, and that makes all the difference."

"Sure, there is nothing like a good lawyer." Frank said. "look at that guy in Texas who tried to have a judge murdered. They got him on tape and everything. But he was rich and could afford a smart lawyer, so he's free."

"Sure" Big Bill said. "It is only working stiffs like us who get sent to the pokey."

"It's the rich that gets the pleasure, it's the poor that gets the blame" sang the bartender.

"I hear that you are getting rich." Joe said to him.

"Rich? Nah. Nobody here will rich enough to tell Carolyn Stoddard Hawkes Collins to stuff it."

"I have told her that." Frank said.

"Because you work for the Federal Government and can afford it."

* * *

The woman turned, lying on the pillow.

"That was good... er.. what was your name?"

"Collins" Quentin said. "Barnabas Collins."

He wondered why he kept using that name. Any phony name would do. And even his real name. Carolyn wouldn't care. Hell, she had said that he could spend it all on women when she had raised his allowance to celebrate her pregnancy.

All she knew of her pregnancy was that he was not the father. Maybe there was justice there. He had not acknowledged his own children in the past, so now he had to claim at his own somebody else's child.

He knew why he used Barnabas' name. Because if he did, somehow it was Barnabas there, going to bed with women who didn't remember his name, who was carried on by a leash by Carolyn, about to become the legal father of Carolyn's bastard. And that he, Quentin Collins, was free...

* * *

"And I holler why/ And I holler why/ And I holler why/ the tortoise boy, mon ami."

Louella sang, the happiness of her voice belying the sad lyrics. Barnabas had told her about Willie going to Julia. Unofficially of course. Neither of them was supposed to know of it, not until Willie broke the news himself. Yet Julia had told Barnabas, who had told Louella.

"First he gave me one/then he gave me two/ they he gave me three/ and I holler, Lord have mercy."

Maybe, maybe this time things would go right between her and Willie. Maybe they could have a good marriage, finally. And children. A little boy named after his father. A little girl named after her...

It was a very important step that Willie had taken. And on his own - Barnabas had told her with quiet pride - he was finally making it...

"Hold me tight/ hold me tight/ danger waters coming, baby/hold me tight."

Oh, hold me tight, Willie." she said.

* * *

Megan studied the cottage.

"That's where you were, all this time?" she asked Angelique.

"Yes. Me and Sebastian."

"And Roxanne?""

"She was at Wyncliffe. After all, that's where the werewolves are. She's working with Julia to get Chris back."

"And you were here...all this time, while I thought you were dead..."

"I thought about contacting you. But we did not know if we could trust you or not. After all, the Leviathans could have taken over you... Roxanne was wary.. and she has good reason to be. Then I figured out what it would take to make sure on whose side you were on, and I did it... I am sorry for putting you through all this."

Megan shrugged. "I know what it is to maintain a cover story." she looked around the cottage. " How was it, staying here?"

"Not bad. A little boring at times. But Sebastian was good company."

Sebastian blushed slightly at this. He knew that Angelique would not tell Megan how she had actually spent her time, and was filled with admiration for the way she handled it.

Angelique sighed inwardly. There was no point in going over it again. Whether she owed Roxanne, or Roxanne owed her, did not matter. There was work to be done.

"You had to do it." Megan said. "I would have done the same in your situation." she was quiet for a few seconds. "Of course, you'll have to remain here, until we are ready to move against them."

* * *

Barnabas sat on the ground, making himself comfortable. For the first time he wanted to be there, instead of being dragged by his own inner demons. There was none of the furious pain that used to wrack him. Just a sadness...

"I think I figured out what you were trying to tell me." he said softly "it took me time, since I am not too smart."

He ran his hand over the ground. He had done this before, but this time there was no desperation in him.

"I realized what Maggie was doing with me. Correction. What I allowed her to do with me. I wanted to atone so much for the past that I ended up trapped in a pathological relationship with her. Maybe it is an excuse that I had not fully recovered my memory yet..."

Woodard appeared before him.

"Please, do not interrupt me." Barnabas said "I got this speech all inside me and it has to come out." he gulped "She could ask anything of me, and I'd go along with it. If we had a disagreement, I automatically assumed that she was right and that I was wrong. After all, I owed her something... But it was ridiculous. It was as if I held Louella so that Willie could hit her. As if I helped Julia to put the electrodes on Tom. I had hurt them as much as I hurt Maggie, after all..."

"And why didn't you do that with them?"

"I don't know. Maybe it is because I like them too much to do that to them. I'd give anything to take back the hurt I inflicted on them. But I would be doing them no favor by pretending that they are right when they are wrong."

"Go on."

"Am I on the right track?"

"You tell me."

"I see them as persons. While in Maggie I just see my need to be punished."

"Yes, you do. Do you see the same in me?"

Barnabas nodded. "I now know that it is wrong."

"Let's say that your self-punishment schemes were driving you to the point of stupidity. And I never could stand stupidity."

"I didn't impress you at all."

"You have a gift for self-dramatization. But it is wasted on me."

"For the first time I tried to think of you as a person, as an individual. I don't know if there could have been friendship between us. But if it did, it should have been as it is with Willie and Julia, not like it ended with Maggie."

Woodard shook his head, amused. "So you are not so dumb, after all."

"I learned the hard way." he grimaced "and then I began to think how much I owe you. You brought Julia into my life."

"Let's skip that subject."

"You pulled Willie through after he had been shot. It must have been a difficult operation, with five bullets to take out."

"It was."

"Then you gave me Julia back again. And the, just recently, you helped me get back on my feet."

"It is just the standard pep talk given to those who lose a patient for the first time."

"But why would you take the trouble for me?"

"There was a hint of cruelty in Woodard as he spoke. "In a way, you are an investment. You bought your life with mine. I didn't intend to pay it, but since I have, I expect t get the maximum return for it. In short, you just have to be worth it."

Barnabas looked down "And are you... getting your money's worth?"

Had he lifted his eyes, he would have seen the answer in the ghostly face above him, but he didn't and thus missed it.

"You can call me by my first name, if you want."

* * *

Will the Leviathan be stopped?

Stay tuned...


End file.
